The shape of things to come

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Reader Snotty sent along this XPost, and it’s a hoot.

Because the post itself didn’t offer a link to the actual story, I turned to an AI program, ChatGTP, to investigate the judge’s use of an AI program to write his decision. I do so enjoy irony.

Yes. The underlying story about federal Judge Henry T. Wingate is true, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an unusually harsh ruling against him yesterday, October 22, 2026.

The controversy involves a federal judge whose ruling contained fabricated legal citations, nonexistent parties, and other errors introduced through artificial intelligence. The appeals court overturned his injunction and ordered that the case be reassigned to another judge.

What was the case?

Jackson Federation of Teachers v. Fitch, arising from a challenge to Mississippi's 2025 law, House Bill 1193, restricting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) activities in public educational institutions.

Teachers, students, and advocacy organizations challenged the law on constitutional grounds, including freedom of speech and equal protection.

Judge Wingate, a Ronald Reagan appointee serving in the Southern District of Mississippi, issued an order in July 2025 temporarily blocking enforcement of the law.

What went wrong?

The original judicial order contained several remarkable errors:

  • It identified organizations as plaintiffs that weren't actually parties to the lawsuit.

  • It quoted language supposedly from Mississippi's law that wasn't in the statute.

  • It referred to evidence from individuals who weren't involved in the case.

  • It included a citation to a legal decision that apparently did not exist.

Wingate subsequently acknowledged that a law clerk had used the AI tool Perplexity in drafting the order, and that the information had not been adequately verified.

He withdrew the original order and substituted a corrected version. In an October 2025 letter to Senator Chuck Grassley, Wingate attributed the problems to a failure of human oversight and described new safeguards for reviewing his chambers' work.

What did the appeals court say yesterday?

The October 22 opinion, written by Judge Jerry E. Smith, was extraordinarily critical.

Among its statements:

"This district judge carelessly exercised his Article III power by issuing sloppy edicts based on falsehoods and fabrications."

The court also accused the district court of manipulating governing law, apparently to advance a policy agenda. These are the appellate panel's characterizations, not independently established findings about Wingate's motives.

Importantly, the Fifth Circuit didn't merely criticize the AI mistakes. It also found that Wingate had incorrectly analyzed the constitutional issues, including the standards for challenging an entire statute under the First Amendment.

The court vacated the preliminary injunction and directed that the case go to a different district judge. That does not constitute a final ruling that every provision of Mississippi's DEI law is constitutional.

Original documents

These are particularly useful because you can read exactly what the judges said:

Bottom line: The documented events are real. A federal judge issued an injunction containing fabricated material, acknowledged that a clerk had used AI, and was subsequently removed from the case by an appellate court that also found serious legal errors.