Free Speech Hypocrisy, Hot Bench Troubles, And ChatGPT Legal Research

Maybe the woman who called the cops on a Black birdwatcher should try using ChatGPT to make up some fake caselaw for her appeal because the real ones aren't helping. After a year of sword rattling that higher education is "hostile to free speech" because students don't appropriately sit quiet and absorb what speakers on stage are laying down, the media grandstanding came to a halt -- and in the case of the NY Post went into reverse -- amid calls to defund CUNY Law School over a speaker. Apparently it's only a "free speech crisis" in one direction. Meanwhile, the Second Circuit seems highly skeptical of Central Park Karen's claim that her former employer defamed her for citing its zero tolerance for racism in firing her. And by "highly skeptical" we mean the panel appears to have granted oral argument simply to dunk on her lawyer. Speaking of lawyers getting dunked on, the hapless attorneys who filed a response filled with fake caselaw they got off of ChatGPT are in serious trouble. But don't mistake this for "the perils of technology" because this was a failure of good old-fashioned lawyering.