Of Academic Interest
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A useful summary of the damage wrought by the U.S. super-legislature (i.e., the “Supreme Court”)…
…from Cornell law professor Michael Dorf: Some of these decisions are much worse than others, but the overall picture is ugly. The only solution will be to appoint additional “judges” to the super-legislature who will make different political choices.
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Washington & Lee introduces required 1-credit course on “AI for Legal Practice”
The law school’s announcement.
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Open AI’s math proofs
Reader Blake Myers calls to my attention this story about the mathematical proofs released by OpenAI. Dr. Myers kindly compiled what seemed to him the most interesting or important results here. The total collection of papers is here. Readers knowledgeable about math are welcome to comment on these, how they will affect mathematics, etc.
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Claude writes a law review article…
…with a prompt and a blog post from Will Baude.
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ABA actually proposes “deregulation” on certain fronts
Lawprof Derek Muller (Notre Dame) comments.
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UCLA Law School hosts a conference on the legal consequences of the response to 9/11…
…on the 25th anniversary of the attacks. Right-wing garbage media go crazy, and UCLA Chancellor issues statement condemning the event at his own law school! UCLA law faculty issue their own statement in response. The Chancellor should resign, he has no business leading a serious research university.
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Scam watch: “Book Carnival”
Linguist Geoffrey Pullum (Edinburgh) shares another: The WAMC scam is aimed at tempting authors to think they have a publicity opportunity. A recent novel version of it involves an independently established website rather than one filched from some other organization. Yet it is just as much of a fraud. I recently received an email containing a polished and glowing summary of…
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How often is AI being used to write (some or all of) law review articles in top law reviews in 2026?
Julian Nyarko took a look. From his summation of his findings (using Pangram, whose reliability he describes): In 2025, AI use was rare: 9 out of 273 articles (3.3%) have any AI signal, with 5 articles (1.8%) containing an estimated share of AI-generated words exceeding 5%. The estimated share of AI written words across all…
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One *real* radio book show flags the scamers impersonating them
Useful about how these scams work. As this radio station notes, you can report these emails to the Federal Trade Commission: reportfraud.ftc.gov. I assume you should just forward the scammer’s email. (Thanks to Sebastian Greve for the pointer.)
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Scam watch: Thomas Pynchon edition
Hayley Cotter, an English professor at U Mass/Amherst, shares the latest gem: Von: Thomas Pynchon <thomaspynchon.author8@gmail.com>Date: Do., 3. Sept. 2026 um 03:17 UhrSubject: Appreciation for Your WorkTo: [email address omitted] Dear Hayley, I hope this note finds you well. I recently spent time with Poetics of the Legal Sea in English Renaissance Literature, and I was moved…
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The latest transparent scam (from a gmail address, of course, using a real journalist’s name)
In today’s inbox (at least this scammer puts the $$$ request up front): From: Stig Abell <stigabell.timesradio@gmail.com>Date: August 31, 2026 at 10:08:54 AM CDTTo: Brian Leiter <bleiter@uchicago.edu>Subject: Invitation to discuss From a Realist Point of View on Times Radio Dear Professor Leiter, I hope you’re well. I’m Stig Abell, a host and broadcaster with Times Radio.…
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Trump Administration targets ABA’s role as an “accreditor” of law schools
CHE reports: A report from the Education Department is recommending that the accrediting arm of the American Bar Association lose its federal recognition. If approved, the accrediting agency, called the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, would no longer be eligible to serve as a gatekeeper of federal financial…
Then my question is how many of ordinary mathematicians also qualify as artists of their profession…