The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Caitlin Tremblay

Good morning. A new study found that even law professors prefer AI’s tutoring. Plus, the 9th Circuit will weigh California’s ban on openly carrying guns; a federal judge will weigh President Trump’s rule limiting student loan forgiveness; and the California Supreme Court will consider whether digital recording can help address the state’s court reporter shortage. Astronomers discovered exoplanets with magnetic fields. In other positive and negative news, it’s Wednesday. Let’s get into it.

AI beats law professors in Stanford tutoring study

REUTERS/Noah Berger

Law professors favored AI over their peers in answering basic student questions, according to a Stanford Law School study that found AI-generated responses were chosen 75% of the time. The results suggest leading AI tools can match top faculty in legal reasoning, as schools weigh how to integrate the technology into teaching and practice.

A growing number of law schools are mandating AI instruction in students’ first year. But approaches vary. The University of California Berkeley School of Law recently adopted a new policy significantly curtailing how students may use AI in their academic work.

The new tutoring study suggests AI may have benefits on the teaching side. Rather than relying on peers or sporadic emails to instructors to answer questions, law students could utilize AI for on-demand answers with reliable results, according to the study.

Karen Sloan has more here.

Coming up today

Health: Novartis and the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America will urge the 1st Circuit to rule against a new Rhode Island law requiring drugmakers to offer discounts on drugs dispensed by third-party pharmacies that contract with hospitals and clinics serving rural, low-income populations.
Civil rights: The 5th Circuit will hear arguments in a lawsuit brought by a Black Texas high school student who alleges the Barbers Hill Independent School District violated his civil rights by suspending him for wearing his hair in long locs. The district’s dress code limits hair length for boys. The lower court dismissed the case.
Second Amendment: The 9th Circuit will hear en banc a challenge to California’s ban on openly carrying guns. In January the court ruled the law unconstitutional. Read that opinion here.
Education: Several Democratic-led states, cities and nonprofits will urge U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston to block a new rule adopted by the U.S. Department of Education under President Trump that would exclude organizations from a federal student loan forgiveness program if they are deemed to have a "substantial illegal purpose." Read the complaints here and here.
Constitutional: The California Supreme Court will consider whether a state law that bans most electronic recording of civil proceedings violates the state constitution. Petitioners argue that the law impairs trial courts’ ability to provide full access to the judicial system amid a widespread shortage of court reporters.
Criminal: A judge on Wednesday is set to hold a sealed, virtual hearing on an undisclosed matter in a state criminal case accusing Luigi Mangione of murdering a health insurance executive on a Manhattan sidewalk.
Judiciary: The U.S. Judicial Conference's Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure will meet and discuss whether or how to amend the rules governing criminal and civil cases at the federal level. Find the agenda book here.

Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.

More top news

Industry insight

Milbank and McDermott said they will raise their pay scale for associates starting next month, potentially triggering a wave of matching announcements from other major law firms. Read more here.
Kurt Olsen, a White House attorney who aided President Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, joined the DOJ as a senior attorney in a prosecutor’s office seeking to build a wide-ranging criminal case against the president’s foes.
The Senate confirmed RNC lawyer Katie Lane to the U.S. district court in Montana, the first of President Trump's judicial nominees to have been rated "not qualified" by the ABA during his second term.

7

That is the number of states that sued the Trump administration for cancelling a major offshore wind lease off