Editor's note
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Next week the Supreme Court will hear a case regarding a Denver bakery owner who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple citing his religious belief that marriage can take place only between a man and a woman. As religious studies scholar David Mislin points out, while religious freedom has been idealized as promoting harmony and equality, this hasn’t really been the case. In fact, the religious freedom debate in America has often created “shifting categories of winners and losers.”
In the meantime, today the high court takes up the case of an armed robber who argues that the FBI invaded his privacy by tracking his cellphone location information without a warrant. H.V. Jagadish, a data scientist and data ethicist at the University of Michigan, explains how the case will affect the privacy of every American who owns a cellphone – no matter what the justices decide.
And staying on Capitol Hill, the Republican plan to “reform” the U.S. tax code continues to dash through Congress, with the Senate scheduled to vote on a version this week. While most Americans believe the system is “rigged” to favor some over others, the GOP plan can hardly be called real reform, argues University of Michigan tax expert Stephanie Leiser. It would do nothing to improve the system’s perceived fairness, she writes.
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Kalpana Jain
Religion + Ethics Editor
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Top stories
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The wedding cake on display at Masterpiece Cakeshop.
AP Photo/Brennan Linsley
David Mislin, Temple University
Americans have idealized religious freedom and imagined that it brings harmony. But, history suggests it might, in fact, have led to more conflict.
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How much can your cellphone reveal about where you go?
pathdoc/Shutterstock.com
H.V. Jagadish, University of Michigan
Should police be able to use cellphone records to track suspects – and law-abiding citizens?
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Protesters shout their disapproval of the Republican tax bill on Capitol Hill.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Stephanie Leiser, University of Michigan
Far from dispelling the notion among Americans that the system is 'rigged' against them, Republican tax plans are more likely to make matters worse.
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Politics + Society
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Ashwini Tambe, University of Maryland
Victims everywhere have lost their patience and their fear and are finding willing listeners. A question worth asking is: Why now?
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Wes Mountain, The Conversation
Raffaello Pantucci explains what lone-actor terrorism is, why it's effective and why we seem to be seeing more attacks that aren't clearly connected to terror networks in this long-form comic explainer.
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Trending on site
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Sara Konrath, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis; Femida Handy, University of Pennsylvania
Donors who support charitable causes have a 'taste' for giving, researchers found.
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Tanya D. Marsh, Wake Forest University
If no one claims the remains of cult leader and killer Charles Manson, it's unclear what will happen to his body. Will it find an anonymous California grave or face dissection in an anatomy lab?
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Sid Bedingfield, University of Minnesota
In the 1960s, white newspaper journalists exploited racial divisions to help build the GOP's southern firewall.
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