AI Has Predicted Supreme Court Justices’ Questions, Barrett Says

Justice Amy Coney Barrett said she had it on “good authority” that lawyers preparing to argue before the Supreme Court have sought help from AI to identify potential questions they’ll face—and then, “scarily,” heard those queries repeated from the bench.

Barrett spoke Tuesday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., as part of a tour to promote her new book, “Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution.”

She said she expects the court to use AI at some point, but not in the foreseeable future, due to confidentiality concerns. She also said democracy requires civility and compromise.

“If we have a winner-takes-all approach where you just want to crush the enemy, if you regard people to disagree with you as the enemy, we can’t constructively move forward as a society,” Barrett said.

The event drew hundreds of attendees, some of them vocal Barrett enthusiasts. Dozens of protesters also gathered at the entrance to the library prior to the talk.

They held anti-Barrett, anti-SCOTUS signs, and decried the court’s Monday emergency docket order on Monday that lifted a ban on Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Los Angeles area using racial profiling to question and detain people.