From D.C. v. Casa Ruby, Inc., decided May 1 by D.C. trial judge Danya A. Dayson, but just posted on Westlaw:
Therefore, specifically, as to each Third-Party board member Defendant, there must be factual allegations sufficient to support an inference or conclusion that the board member either intentionally, rather than negligently, inflicted harm on Casa Ruby, that they voted for or assented to a distribution made in violation of DC Code 29-406.33, that a board member intentionally violated a criminal law or that the board member received some amount of money to which they were not entitled.
{[Footnote accompanying the "they":] In this Order, the pronoun "they" is used as a singular pronoun to refer to a hypothetical person, consistent with prevailing practices in style guides. See, e.g., MLA Handbook § 3.5 (9th ed. 2021) ("[T]hey has gained acceptance as a generic, third-person singular pronoun used to refer to hypothetical or anonymous people."); APA Publication Manual § 4.18 (7th ed. 2020) (advising writers to "use 'they' as a generic third-person singular pronoun to refer to a person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant to the context of the usage."); The Associated Press Stylebook, they, them, their (55th ed. 2020) ("Arguments for using they/them as a singular sometimes arise with an indefinite pronoun (anyone, everyone, someone) or unspecified/unknown gender (a person, the victim, the winner)."); The Chicago Manual of Style ¶ 5.48 (17th ed. 2017) (noting that "because he is no longer universally accepted as a generic pronoun referring to a person of unspecified gender, people commonly (in speech and in formal writing) substitute the third-person-plural pronouns they, them, their, and themselves (or the nonstandard singular themself.))".}
This doesn't speak to the more modern pronoun dispute: the use of "they" to refer to named people, whose gender is known (whether or not they themselves prefer to be labeled "they"). It's also just one judge's opinion; I expect many other judges prefer to avoid this, and many others just use singular "they" without saying anything about it.
