Editor's note

On Monday the Supreme Court refused to hear a key case on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. For now, therefore, this Obama-era program, that stops the deportation of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, will stay in place. The Trump administration has said that DACA rewards those who disobeyed the laws of the United States. But Washington University’s Michael Blake argues that the moral principles that underlie the American legal system tell a vastly different story.

Many called for a boycott of the National Rifle Association following the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. And the reaction was swift. Airlines such as Delta, car rental companies including Hertz and more than a dozen other businesses have severed ties with the NRA in the past few days. Jerry Davis, a professor of management and sociology at the University of Michigan, explains what makes this different from past corporate boycotts.

Tufts University cybersecurity scholar Susan Landau argues that the FBI’s continuing drive to get “exceptional access” to bypass smartphone encryption threatens more than data privacy – it puts people’s very identities at risk.

And, celebrating Black History Month as it ends, UConn’s Robert Stephens tells the story of how gospel music took form, with African rhythms coming into contact with Christian ideas of sin and, eventually, the Hammond organ.

Kalpana Jain

Senior Religion + Ethics Editor

Top Stories
Immigrants and activists demonstrate in front of the Republican Party headquarters in Washington. AP Photo/Luis Alonso Lugo

Why deporting the 'Dreamers' is immoral

Michael Blake, University of Washington

Conservatives on migration claim that allowing the DACA recipients to stay shows disrespect for the law. The moral principles that underlie the American legal system, however, tell a different story.
Students who walked out of school protest against gun violence in front of the White House. Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

Why is the NRA boycott working so quickly?

Jerry Davis, University of Michigan

The lightning-quick corporate response to demands for a boycott against the NRA shows that companies can't escape politics in an age saturated with social media.
A smartphone is a digital form of ID for many apps and services. Iowa Department of Transportation

Encrypted smartphones secure your identity, not just your data

Susan Landau, Tufts University

Smartphones are key elements of two-factor authentication processes. Weakening their security threatens people's digital identities.
A choir sings traditional gospel music. Staff Sgt. Bernardo Fuller

African rhythms, ideas of sin and the Hammond organ: A brief history of gospel music's evolution

Robert Stephens, University of Connecticut

For the enslaved Africans, music – rhythm in particular – became a tool of communication about their conditions. Later, it laid the foundation for spirituals and gospel songs.

Arts + Culture

  • From Smell-O-Vision to Astrocolor, the film industry's biggest innovation flops

    Leo Braudy, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; Scott Higgins, Wesleyan University; Stephen Groening, University of Washington; Thomas Delapa, University of Michigan

    Sound, color and special effects transformed the moviegoing experience. These inventions decidedly did not.

Politics + Society

Health + Medicine

Environment + Energy

  • Understanding tornadoes: 5 questions answered

    Paul Markowski, Pennsylvania State University; Yvette Richardson, Pennsylvania State University

    As deadly tornadoes rip through southern and central states, two meteorology professors explain what causes these dangerous storms.

Trending on site

Today’s chart