"The answer to the question of whether Mr. Trump can act as our President is so obvious, even a machine can see it," John Doe argued in his filing yesterday, citing ChatGPT output. He went on to offer "a full-throated concurrence" "authored" by Grok. (To be fair, he acknowledged that "[t]he tech isn't perfect," and supplemented the argument with a citation to Michael Luttig & Laurence Tribe's article in The Atlantic sharply condemning the Supreme Court's decision in Trump v. Anderson—yet of course the district court is bound by Trump v. Anderson, whether or not it agrees with the decision.)
Judge Allison Burroughs, however, declined yesterday to let Doe intervene:
A party may intervene as a matter of right under Rule 24(a) if it meets the following four requirements:
First, the application must be timely. Second, the applicant must claim an interest relating to the property or transaction which is the subject of the action. Third, the applicant must be so situated that the disposition of the action may as a practical matter impair or impede [its] ability to protect that interest. Fourth, the applicant must show that [its] interest will not be adequately represented by existing parties….
"[A] party to claim standing [to intervene] must have an interest distinct from that of every other citizen or taxpayer." …
