law

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted February 26, 2015, in favor of new rules that would enshrine the principle of “net neutrality,” with a draft of the “Open Internet Order” then released March 12. This follows a long period of speculation, litigation and political pressure around this issue, stretching back at least five years to the FCC’s original open Internet rules.

The decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court are seldom without controversy, and American history has seen fierce public debate over the Court’s proper role in the democracy. With lifetime tenure, justices are in principle immune from the vagaries of public opinion. But new issues inevitably come to the Court because of emerging trends in society, and evolving norms and values have always been part of these cases.

The deaths of black men at the hands of white police officers in recent years have raised a number of questions about the treatment of racial minorities within the criminal justice system, as well as about patterns of arrest-related deaths more generally. Some researchers are calling for Congressional-mandated government databases to be more thorough so they can better find patterns in the violent interactions between police and civilians.