Chief Justice John Roberts issued his 2023 year-end report for a year in which the U.S. Supreme Court suffered a historic loss in credibility caused by reveals of undisclosed benefits given to the justices—in the case of Justice Clarence Thomas, the value likely in the millions—and the thoughtless glee with which the newly empowered conservative majority overturned precedents to further a Federalist Society agenda.

Adding to the damage done to the court was Justice Samuel Alito, feeling so empowered that he took to writing opinion pieces in The Wall Street Journal asserting that Congress has no power to regulate the high court’s ethics, as well criticizing ProPublica for its investigations into Alito’s luxury fishing trip paid for by a billionaire with matters before the court.

One might have expected the chief justice to at least offer some assurances about the court’s ethics to the public. For example, he could have highlighted the fact that they finally adopted a code of judicial ethics, albeit a toothless one.

But Roberts didn’t do that. Instead, he focused on… wait for it… the role of artificial intelligence in the law.

The chief justice’s AI report reads like it was written by ChatGPT in response to a request for something like “write something boring about the federal judiciary that does not mention ethics scandals.” Actually, Roberts barely discusses AI in the report’s seven pages—in addition to six pages worth of appendices illustrating just how few cases SCOTUS actually has to work on.

He spends........

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