Supreme Court Isn't Using AI, Barrett Says. Lawyers Are.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett said the Supreme Court does not use AI tools because of security concerns, offering reassurance that the court's opinions are written by humans, not machines.
Barrett made the comment Saturday while speaking at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. She was responding to repeated questions from the public about how AI is changing legal practice before the nation's highest court.
The statement comes as lawyers increasingly rely on AI to prepare for oral arguments. Last week, Milbank partner Neal Katyal revealed he used a Harvey AI model trained on 25 years of Supreme Court papers to prepare for arguments in a tariffs case. The AI predicted the justices' questions "almost verbatim" and even forecasted what their opinions would look like.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor expressed concern about the predictability this suggests. Speaking last month at the University of Alabama School of Law, she said a colleague told her about a computer system that predicts Supreme Court decisions with a high accuracy rate.
"I told him I thought that was a very bad thing, because it shows we're way too predictable," Sotomayor said.
Barrett acknowledged the trend during a previous appearance, saying she had it on "good authority" that lawyers were using AI to anticipate questions from the bench.
Sotomayor framed AI as a tool that should be understood like any other powerful instrument. "AI should be viewed as a sophisticated human-with all of the potential and biases that comes with it," she said.
For legal professionals looking to understand how AI is being deployed in practice, resources on AI for Legal and AI Learning Path for Paralegals offer practical guidance on the tools reshaping the profession.
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