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Numerous articles have wrestled with the question of whether amicus briefs influence judicial decisions.  These essays generally conclude that in some cases amicus involvement can impact outcomes—by providing technical expertise or discussing the broader implications of a ruling, for instance.  However, unless a majority opinion closely follows the line of argument (and even the wording) in an amicus brief, or lauds the brief extensively in some other way, it is often impossible to establish to what degree an amicus party helped shape the findings of a majority opinion.  Still more inaccessible is the answer to a bolder question: Would a court have ruled for a different party had amici been absent altogether?

No such mystery cloaks the AI justice employed in a recent post.  There, we asked Google’s NotebookLM to consider only the parties’ briefs to determine which among them made the most compelling arguments.  Today we’ll add amicus briefs to the mix and see if their contributions ever persuade our AI umpire to change its “mind.”[Continue Reading…]