Judge Who Relied Entirely on AI for Ruling Shielded by Judicial Immunity, Court Says
Judge relying wholly on AI in order is covered by judicial immunity, court rules
A federal court dismissed a lawsuit against a state judge who allegedly relied wholly on artificial intelligence to issue a ruling, holding that judicial immunity applies even if the judge delegated all decision-making to AI. The court found that issuing a ruling is a normal judicial function and that the litigant failed to show a clear absence of jurisdiction. The decision means such complaints must go through state appeals or disciplinary channels, not federal lawsuits.
Issuing a judicial ruling is clearly a normal judicial function and the controversy at issue centered around Plaintiff's state court case pending before Defendant.
- openasocket
Important to note that this was not a decision on the merits. The court didn’t find that the decision was written by AI; just that the facts alleged would be covered by judicial immunity. Proper action is to appeal, and file a grievance with the Nevada Council of Judicial Discipline, possibly also the Nevada Bar Association. Those institutions take these things seriously, and the judge can end up with her license suspended or even disbarred. A license suspension, even a short one, is very serious for a judge. A judge is forbidden from having any other employment, so a judge under suspension isn’t getting a salary and can’t get other employment. So it’s a pretty significant monetary penalty.
EDIT: Yeah this plaintiff is nuts. His complaint, linked by a response to my comment and in other places, is just bizarre. I would highly doubt any allegations he might make.This guy has apparently been suing a bunch of judges in the family courts in Las Vegas. A lot of those proceedings appear to be online: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsKMpjAPcB2vRRCMtdEb1...
- dgrin91
I just read a story of a guy trying to prompt inject his court submissions to win because he thought the court was using AI. I guess he just got the wrong judge: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/08/suspecting-court...
- Karthick81
If the judge is allowed to outsource their job, can they outsource to anyone? What about to a donor who contributed to the campaign? what about to someone who has a vested interest in the outcome of the judgement?
If outsourcing is permitted, then why have judges in the first place? why not just have an AI and let it do all the work and save money for the govt?
- jawns
Several commenters point out that while suing the judge is not an option, appealing the judge's ruling remains an option.
So just because a judge completely abdicates their responsibility to use their own judgment, the person now needs to go through a lengthy and expensive appeals process? And even if the judge is sanctioned or removed from the bench, that only prevents future harm; it does not actually make whole the person they have already harmed.
I can tolerate some level of immunity -- maybe even beyond qualified immunity -- to protect judges that make good-faith errors. But when they're engaging in blatant misconduct, it seems like absolute immunity is providing more protection than is necessary or warranted.
- __s
This is a film, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_(2026_film)