Appeals court lifts block on Mississippi's DEI ban, ejects judge over AI errors

Reuters ^ | 10/22/26

[CFW]

- A federal appeals court on Thursday vacated a ruling that ​blocked Mississippi's ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools, reassigning the case away from a district court judge who had acknowledged that a key ‌ruling contained AI-generated errors.

The New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals threw out, opens new tab the preliminary injunction against the state law and reassigned the civil rights lawsuit to a different district judge for further review.

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TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; US: Mississippi
KEYWORDS: 5thcircuit; ai; courtofappeals; dei; judges; mississippi; neworleans; tds

[CFW]

In a judicial smackdown, Judge J.E. Smith tears into Judge Wingate for his "careless[] exercise" of judicial power and "sloppy edicts based on falsehoods and fabrications." Mississippi's anti-DEI law can go into effect. Judicial AI use takes a beating. Reassigned.

"This district judge carelessly exercised his Article III power by issuing sloppy edicts based on falsehoods and fabrications...Judge Wingate dug in his heels and claimed that the hallucinated claims had no bearing on its reasoning; he offered no explanation as to why he included such apparently irrelevant material in the original TRO or why the TRO nevertheless was justified in its absence."

"Moreover, the district court got the law wrong. The TRO and preliminary injunction order rested 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."

[Paladin2]

...”reassigning the case away from a district court judge who had acknowledged that a key ‌ruling contained AI-generated errors.”

Whatever is Traitor Roberts going to do about lefty AI slop?

[Paladin2]

“... impoverished legal analysis ...”

I thought that Miss. was on the rise again [school testing ranks higher among the United States than it used to].

[Paladin2]

Thanks for posting.

This is a fun read.

I’ve not seen this on CNN.....

[CFW]

It was a pretty good smackdown. For instance,

“The proceedings in the district court were 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. 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. “

You can read the 28 page decision here:

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71379295/111/jackson-fed-of-tchr-v-fitch/

[Paladin2]

Sounds like a totally fake “opinion”...

[KevinB]

Raciss!

Judge Wingate

[Mr. N. Wolfe]

Both judges are Reagan appointees. Both judges are 79 years old.

Judge J.E. Smith (5th US Circuit Court of Appeals)

Judge Wingate (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Travillion_Wingate

“Judicial backlog

On September 29, 2016, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals removed Wingate as judge from two cases for continued failure to rule upon pending motions. This was not the first time the Court of Appeals had taken notice of Judge Wingate’s judicial backlog; in 2010, the higher court criticized him for taking more than six years to issue a final judgment in a civil case.”

[KevinB]

Apparently, the "esteemed" Judge Wingate makes a practice or relying on AI.

From his wiki: "In July 2025, Wingate withdrew a ruling in the case of Mississippi Association of Educators, et al. vs. Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, et al. after questions were raised about apparent AI "hallucinations" in his ruling.[7] Although Wingate replaced his original ruling with a corrected version, the corrected version cites an apparently nonexistent case."[8]

[Paladin2]

“II. This Case Must Be Reassigned on Remand.
The details of the district judge’s orders frame our holding that reassignment is necessary to do justice. “

Necessary, but perhaps way less than sufficient....

[Paladin2]

I never even thought to check.

[Fungi]

Judicial backlog and use of AI.
Translation: laziness and incompetence, not necessarily in that order.

[HombreSecreto]

Juan Williams’ long lost brother?

[CFW]

Apparently, the "esteemed" Judge Wingate makes a practice on relying on AI.

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Yep. A DEI hire with DEI clerks depending on AI to write any documents.

I really like the way the Court didn't mince words.

[KevinB]

Yeah, that was quite the smackdown. This guy is a Yale Law grad. This gives yet another great example of the poison that is affirmative action/DEI. The scary part is that there are hundreds of judges just like Wingate making rulings every day who are never challenged.

[Bubba_Leroy]

The judge’s DEI hire law clerk drafted it, gave it to the judge to sign, and the judge was stupid enough to sign it. The buck stops with the judge, though I’m betting that the law clerk won’t be able to count on a glowing job endorsement.