Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin

(she, her, hers)
‘No Day Shall Erase You From the Memory of Time,’ a phrase written by the Roman poet Virgil, is displayed on a wall at the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

What we forget when we remember 9/11

There is a strange nostalgia in realizing that something once so immediate now belongs increasingly to people who know it only as the past.
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Geneva Airport on June 17, 2026. Martial Trezzini/Keystone/Pool via AP

Trump doesn’t own the government – even though he acts as if Congress is not his equal in constitutional power and authority

In President Donald Trump’s public language, Congress rarely appears as a coequal branch of government. It appears as an obstacle, an audience, a pressure point, a rubber stamp or an afterthought.
Protesters at a demonstration against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Portland, Maine, on Jan. 30, 2026. Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

How Homeland Security’s subpoenas and databases of protesters threaten the ‘uninhibited, robust, and wide‑open’ free speech protected by Supreme Court precedent

It’s difficult to measure what is lost when an opinion is never voiced and impossible to catalogue the arguments that never form because a speaker calculates the risk and decides silence is safer.
A pesar de las pruebas que indican lo contrario, la secretaria de Seguridad Nacional, Kristi Noem, declaró en una rueda de prensa celebrada el 24 de enero de 2026 que Alex Pretti ‘llegó armado… y atacó’ a los agentes, quienes tomaron medidas para ‘defender sus vidas’. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

‘Ya nadie cree en nada’: qué nos dice la filosofía de Hannah Arendt sobre los tiroteos en Minneapolis

Cuando los funcionarios mienten una y otra vez, la gente no sabe en qué confiar. Y cuando esto ocurre, los ciudadanos no pueden deliberar, aprobar o disentir de manera coherente, porque ya no existe un mundo compartido.
Despite evidence to the contrary, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a Jan. 24, 2026, news conference that Alex Pretti ‘came with a weapon … and attacked’ officers, who took action to ‘defend their lives.’ AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson

Repeated government lying, warned Hannah Arendt, makes it impossible for citizens to think and to judge

When officials lie time and again, people don’t know what to trust. And when this happens, citizens cannot deliberate, approve or dissent coherently, because a shared world no longer exists.
L’adoption de la loi sur la transparence des dossiers Epstein, soutenue par de nombreuses victimes et de membres de la famille d’Epstein, a conduit le ministère de la justice états-unien à commencer à divulguer certains des dossiers Epstein. J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

Publication de documents dans l’affaire Epstein : pourquoi les victimes méritent plus d’attention que la « liste » des hommes puissants

Alors que le ministère de la Justice états-unien commence à divulguer les dossiers Epstein, ses nombreuses victimes méritent davantage d’attention que les hommes puissants figurant sur sa « liste des clients »
Passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, backed by many of Epstein’s alleged victims and family members, led the DOJ to begin releasing some of the Epstein files. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

As DOJ begins to release Epstein files, his many victims deserve more attention than the powerful men in his ‘client list’

Powerful men connected to Jeffrey Epstein are named, dissected and speculated about. The survivors, unless they work hard to step forward, remain a blurred mass in the background.
Survivors, including Anouska De Georgiou, center, during a news conference with victims of Jeffrey Epstein outside the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 3, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Epstein’s victims deserve more attention than his ‘client list’

Powerful men connected to Jeffrey Epstein are named, dissected and speculated about. The survivors, unless they work hard to step forward, remain a blurred mass in the background.
The Trump administration’s actions against Harvard threaten a foundational American value – free speech. zpagistock/Getty Images

Harvard, like all Americans, can’t be punished by the government for speaking freely – and a federal court decision upholds decades of precedents saying so

The First Amendment is not just about the right to speak without fear of jail. It’s also about ensuring that government cannot punish speech indirectly by threatening livelihoods and institutions.
Congress’ cuts to public broadcasting will diminish the range and volume of the free press and the independent reporting it provides. MicroStockHub-iStock/Getty Images Plus

PBS and NPR are generally unbiased, independent of government propaganda and provide key benefits to US democracy

Studies link public broadcasting to higher voter turnout, better factual knowledge and lower susceptibility to extremist rhetoric. Those contributions to democracy may be diminished by Congress’ cuts.
Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Greensboro, North Carolina on June 15, 2016. Jonathan Drake/Reuters

In the wake of tragedy, Trump takes rhetoric of fear to a whole new level

Two experts in political rhetoric explain how one candidate has used rhetorical devices like framing and ‘argumentum in terrorem’ to stoke fear and attract voters since the Orlando nightclub shooting.

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