Judge blasts DOJ for using AI to write filings with fake citations
When the case law you are citing isn't real, neither is your case.
A federal judge tore into Justice Department lawyers after finding their court filing relied on nonexistent legal precedent, raising serious questions about whether AI-generated text, complete with hallucinated citations, made its way into official arguments.
“Neither of these quotes appear in Planned Parenthood, nor in any Eighth Circuit case the Court has found that addresses injunctions,” Brasel wrote flatly. “Even under the most charitable of readings, Planned Parenthood cannot possibly stand for such a proposition; the case discusses the heightened burden that applies to enjoining state statutes and does not involve mandatory injunctions at all.”
“The Eighth Circuit does not apply—and has specifically rejected—a heightened standard for mandatory injunctions,” the judge wrote.
The nonexistent citations came in a case where the judge had already found ICE’s sole witness not credible, calling the witness’s testimony “inconsistent at best and incredible at worst.” To boot, the agency was found to have violated detainees’ Fifth Amendment rights by blocking access to attorneys during Operation Metro Surge.
The blistering takedown astounded legal experts.
When the case law you are citing isn’t real, neither is your case.
Until the DoJ lawyers face personal fines or time in a cell they'll keep doing it.