❓WHAT HAPPENED: U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate, appointed by Ronald Reagan, issued a temporary restraining order blocking Mississippi’s anti-DEI law last week. However, lawyers with the Mississippi Attorney General’s office have subsequently raised questions regarding the validity of the ruling, which is riddled with errors and fabricated case citations.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Judge Henry Wingate, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The initial restraining order was issued on July 20, 2025, with a corrected order issued just days later.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Our attorneys have never seen anything like this.” — Mississippi Attorney General’s office
🎯IMPACT: The error-filled ruling is raising concerns about the use of artificial intelligence tools by attorneys and judges, and calls into question the validity of Judge Wingate’s restraining order.
A federal judge in Mississippi, who blocked the state’s law barring diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs from public schools and universities, is facing allegations that he used artificial intelligence (AI) to write the temporary restraining order. The National Pulse reported last week that U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate, who is black, issued a temporary restraining order blocking Mississippi’s anti-DEI law. However, lawyers with the Mississippi Attorney General’s office have subsequently raised questions regarding the validity of the ruling, which is riddled with errors and fabricated case citations.
The Mississippi Attorney General’s office asked Judge Wingate to clarify his ruling after it was discovered that it contained quotes from state laws that do not exist, fabricated case citations for rulings that have never happened, and even listed plaintiffs not party to the lawsuit. The request for clarification resulted in Judge Wingate quietly replacing the order on the public docket with a revised version. Notably, the erroneous order is no longer available to the public.
“Our attorneys have never seen anything like this,” a spokesman for the Mississippi Attorney General’s office said. Other attorneys who reviewed the original order believe that artificial intelligence may have been used, which would explain the fabrication of case precedent and state law.
A similar situation arose in March 2024 when disgraced anti-Trump attorney Michael Cohen was exposed for having used AI to write court filings that cited fake cases and fabricated precedent-setting rulings. While Cohen faced possible legal sanctions for his actions, he was ultimately only chastised by Judge Jesse Furman, who called Cohen’s actions “embarrassing and certainly negligent.” Judge Furman explained at the time that he believed Cohen’s excuse that he did not fully understand how artificial intelligence language models function and that the fake case citations were not in “bad faith.”
Concerningly, even Judge Wingate’s corrected order appears to have significant citation errors. The order cites a 1974 ruling attributed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. However, the case, Cousins v. School Board of City of Norfolk, does not appear to exist. In fact, Judge Wingate—or the artificial intelligence—seems to confuse a historic incident involving 15-year-old Louis Cousins Sr. and high school desegregation in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1959, and Cousins et al. v. The School Board of Orange County et al., which was a 2022 free speech challenge to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law. Where the 1974 date for the fake Cousins case comes from is unclear.
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