On August 19, 2022, US District Judge Henry Wingate, smiling at Miss Jackson, ruled on Thursday, June 1, 2023 that the Mississippi Chief Justice could not be the defendant in a lawsuit challenging state law regarding appointed judges. (AP Photo/Rogerio V. Solis, File)
- Sen. Chuck Grassley asked district judges to re-record the original order to preserve a transparent history of court actions.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote to two federal judges about allegations of using artificial intelligence (AI) generated to draft court orders with little human verification.
The order from U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate to block Mississippi's anti-DEI law is one of the issues Grassley is calling judges.
As previously reported by the Magnolia Tribune, Wingate's July order temporarily blocked Mississippi's anti-DEI law, which passed this year, as part of a lawsuit filed in June by the Mississippi American Civil Liberties Association (ACLU) and the Mississippi Judicial Center.
As lawmakers explained, the new law prevents public kindergartens and high schools and higher education institutions from using diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices when making decisions regarding school employment, academic opportunities and student engagement. Such decisions are made based on the merit and qualifications of the individual, not on the person's race, color, sexual orientation, or gender. The law passed both the Capitol bodies and received the governor's signature in April.
After Wingate issued an order to block the law from coming into force, both sides of legal challenges noticed a serious factual misunderstanding in the federal judge's decision. Two days later, the Mississippi Attorney General's Office defended the new law and, in consultation with the plaintiffs, filed a motion seeking clarification or correction of the order issued by Wingate.
Judge Wingate revised the original order the following day, then removed the original sentence from the case file, retroactively revising the amended order as if it were the original sentence.
The Senate said in a statement from Grassley's office that the surveillance investigation was conducted following public reports that Judge Wingate and U.S. District Judge Julian Xavier Neals issued court orders containing serious factual misunderstandings, causing alleged AI use.
“As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I am committed to protecting the rights of the litigants and ensuring that all parties to federal courts are treated fairly and carefully vetted by a Senate-approved Section 3 judge,” Grassley wrote. “Judges must maintain the highest standards of integrity, candidity and accuracy of fact, just like lawyers appearing before a judge. In fact, when considering the binding power of judgments regarding the rights and duties of the litigant parties, a judge in Article 3 should maintain a higher standard.”
Grassley asks Wingate and Neals to explain whether they, their legal clerks or court officials used the generated AI or entered private case information into the generation AI tool when preparing their sentences.
Additionally, Grassley asked the district judge to re-record the original order to preserve a transparent history of the court's actions.
The full letter to Wingate by Mr. Grassley can be read below.
