California’s AI Rules: Model or Cautionary Tale?
The timing of these scandals is particularly significant. On September 1, 2025, California became the first state to implement comprehensive rules governing judicial use of AI, adopting California Rules of Court, rule 10.430 and California Standards of Judicial Administration, standard 10.80 based on recommendations from the state’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force.
Proponents tout these rules as necessary guardrails for inevitable technological integration, and a pathway for Judges and their staff to use AI in their judicial work. Critics see something darker: official approval for judges to offload their constitutional duties onto algorithms, with predictable consequences for accuracy and accountability.
The California framework arrives as federal courts grapple with the Wingate and Neals scandals—cases that expose the risks when judicial AI use lacks transparency, oversight, and human verification. The question facing other states considering similar rules: Are they preventing the next AI disaster, or codifying the conditions that make it inevitable?
