Robin

I saw this not too long ago. On the plus side, output didn't hallucinate cases, but that's because it made up new holdings for cases in the opening brief itself.

Also, in trying to solve for the work product privilege, you're now relying on an LLM to determine which issues to raise/prioritize

Right?!

I'm imagining doing this with an appeals court and triumphantly producing summaries of 100 cases that say things like "we review conclusions of law de novo" and "we can affirm on any ground supported by the record"

Yes! Did you see this as well re: focus on NLRB cases?

He published an AI-written book that "provides an introduction to the NLRA and NLRB by providing summaries of the 100 most-cited cases in this area of law using the 100 most recent cases citing to each of those cases"!

So, for example, the most-cited case in NLRB history is F.W. Woolworth Co., 90 NLRB 289 (1950), which is a case about how to calculate backpay remedies. I grabbed a JSON containing the 100 most-recent cases citing to F.W. Woolworth in my NLRB Law Database. Then I went through that JSON file one case at a time and had Gemini provide a 100-word summary that described what legal rule F.W. Woolworth established and how F.W. Woolworth was applied in that case. This 100-word summary was sent back in JSON format with other metadata, allowing me to construct a new JSON file that contained 100-word summaries for each of the cases in the original JSON file.

This is extremely stupid for multiple reasons (100-word summaries! Recursive AI tools!) but I can't get over the basic misunderstanding of most cited cases as most important/foundational

The most cited case is about calculating backpay, because it gets cited in every case awarding backpay!

Ahh, but he's an expert in NLRB decisions as the publisher of an AI-written book that "provides an introduction to the NLRA and NLRB by providing summaries of the 100 most-cited cases in this area of law using the 100 most recent cases citing to each of those cases."

mattbruenig.com/2026/02/10/t...

But this demonstrates a key point: The easy questions already generally available (shout out The Developing Labor Law for this one)

The hard/complex questions need thoughtful analysis and reasoning by analogy that I haven't seen from Claude/other AI. So you're risking major error without good uses.

Out of interest, I just watched his sales/demo video.

He built a tool that pulls from a database (that he created?) of NLRB case law, sure. But the example prompt was so straightforward that I pulled up a treatise and found the answer in less time than it took Claude. And the treatise is citable!

Great thread (and extremely justifiably angry judge)

They likely also didn't bring the ultra vires b/c they brought the statutory claims under the APA, as agency action contrary to law. (But could have argued ultra vires in the alternative)

Leon holds the Office of Executive Residence is not an agency, hence needing to bring this as ultra vires

Case 3:26-cv-01455-ZNQ Document 9 Filed 02/26/26 Page 7 of 7 PageID: 104 The U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Homeland Security are cautioned thak further arrests and detentions under $ 1225(b) that come before the undersigned will likely trigger he issuance of an Order to Show Cause and the scheduling of an in-person hearing requiring individuals with personal knowledge from the Office and the Department to testify under oath as to the specific facts and legal positions associated with the detention at issue IV. CONCLUSION For the reasons expressed above, Petitioner's habeas petition (ECF No. 1) will be GRANTED, and Petitioner will be RELEASED IMMEDIATELY. n appropriate order follows. Date: February 26, 2026 ZAKID N. QURAISHI UNFPED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

To be clear, he's prepared to haul in high level officials in the next case. (Here, he just ordered release)

This is not immediate action, but it is important that he's threatening sanctions for the act of continuing to detain people unlawfully, not just for non-compliance with release orders

JD continuing his lifelong quest to prove the adage that they don't teach law at Yale

I think lots of pundits have trouble with the idea that "politics" actually includes a lot of different roles, even in the narrow category of elected officials. So someone can be good or even great at one role without that translating to another one!

Eye-popping margins in the Pennsylvania special elections today:

—Democrats won HD94 by 63 points.
(Harris won it by 30 in 2024.)

—Democrats won HD42 by 35 points.
(Harris won it by 17 in 2024.)

[The 2024 numbers are via the essential @the-downballot.com].

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking comes extremely close to fitting that prompt!

There are wizards who do detecting (if not detectives) and bake, though more bread than cake

I think I tried concomitant at least once every time I opened the spelling bee, unwilling to accept that it was excluded

(See also "monotonic")

After falling down a rabbit hole on judicial exclamation marks, I have discovered that Westlaw erroneously replaced an exclamation with a question mark in no less a case than Marbury v. Madison!

The article also explains that these guards were contractors with GEO group, not DHS employees, so the gossip is even less likely to be informed about actual ICE/CBP policies

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, i...

Every word of this is a nightmare www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Ahh, not a fan of the "dissental," I see

(Or the "concurral," or the "statement respecting the denial of en banc review...al"?)

Rojas-Espinoza v. Bondi, No. 24-7536 VANDYKE, Circuit Judge, dissenting from the grant of rehearing en banc: Imagine, if you are able, the wonderful Circuit of Wackadoo. The attorneys are all wise, the judges are all zealous, and the law clerks are all above average. Everything is enlightened and efficient. But alas, there is one thing amiss in Wackadoo: the judges are simply too busy. You see, the Circuit of Wackadoo covers a vast geographic area. The expansive territory is populated with highly litigious people. Lawsuits of all sorts fly fast and thick. And disappointingly, their elected leaders have enacted a handful of laws that many of the Wackadoo judges find deplorable. The enforcement of those benighted laws accounts for around one third of the Circuit’s caseload. What to do? … What to do?

The 9th Circuit just took a case en banc involving the Court's internal procedures on administrative stays of removal in immigration cases.

Judge VanDyke is extremely normal about this, as one can tell from the opening of his 23-page dissent from rehearing

cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...

There's a finicky distinction between legal research to determine the right answer to a legal question raised in the case—absolutely needed, can't just rely on arguments in the briefs—and judges addressing legal questions not raised at all.

What's sufficiently raised is of course often contested.

There are waiver rules in certain circumstances, particularly on appeal. If a policy might be illegal under a law no one has raised, appellate judges are almost never going to raise that in the first instance (with a few narrow exceptions, like for jurisdiction issues)

So you agree? You think the major-questions doctrine is lawless?

Congrats to BART rider and Oakland legend Alysa Liu on winning a gold medal at the Olympics and making the Bay Area proud!

That's what I'm fucking talking about!!!!

ALYSA!!

ALYSA LIU IS GOLDEN

HOLY SHIT

The Paralympics will be in early March, so that at least extends the time of joy

Yeah, I think this is where I come down in the end, given that it did appear to confuse people.

I thought that the second person and moreso the skip forward in time at the end were pretty strong signals that it was at least composite/fictionalized, but more clarity is better

Very happy for all the countries holding leaders accountable today