EDITORS' CORNER
A preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of an anti-DEI law in Mississippi has been vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit after it was determined the judge who issued the ruling used AI and presented flawed legal analysis.
In a sharp rebuke, the Fifth Circuit called the proceedings in the district court “a botch job, to say the least.”
“Judge Henry Wingate issued a temporary restraining order (‘TRO’) enjoining enforcement of H.B. 1193 that contained several factual assertions nowhere to be found in the record, or indeed, in any proceeding of the case,” the Fifth Circuit ruled Oct. 22.
“Those included mention of plaintiffs and defendants not in the complaint, supposed ‘declarations’ from non-existent or never-present individuals, false quotations purporting to be taken from the text of H.B. 1193, and several erroneous claims that the law had already led to the demise of apparently fictitious programs,” it added.
The case must now be assigned to a different judge, the Fifth Circuit ruled, noting Wingate also based his decision “on impoverished legal analysis that barely paid lip-service to the precedents of the Supreme Court or this court, seeming at times purposely to misconstrue the law by manipulating the words of statutes and cases, without regard to their texts’ meaning as a whole.”
“The district court — or perhaps, being charitable, its AI agent — ignored and manipulated governing law, apparently to satisfy a policy agenda.”
The decision permits Mississippi to enforce the law while the legal challenges proceed.
The law bars K-12 schools, community colleges, and public universities from maintaining DEI offices, mandating diversity training, or teaching on certain “divisive concepts” regarding race, sex, and gender identity. Schools risk losing state funding if they are found in violation.
MORE: ‘Lack of clarity’ in Mississippi DEI ban prompts funding cuts to university student clubs
