Doug Gladden
@dougthelawyer.bsky.social
Appellate Lawyer. Public Defender. Board Certified—Criminal Appellate Law. Licensed in Texas and Georgia. #AppellateTwitter #AppellateSky
The only issue I take with this is that when an assistant district attorney from the Collin County District Attorney's Office misstates the holding of a case in a brief, he should not be credited with "metacognitive reasoning" when the fact of the matter is he's just a pathological liar.
A lawyer's overstating of a case's holding might be permissible because the lawyer "could, perhaps, reason their way to showing how a case's stated holding might extend to novel situations." But an A.I.'s strained summary of a holding does not do that!
#LegalWriting
2/
#LegalWriting
2/
![way to showing how a case’s stated holding might extend to novel situations, an LLM does not reasonin the way a litigant must. To put it in a slightly different way, LLMs do not perform the metacognitive processes that are necessary to comply with Rule 11. LLMs are tools that “emulate the communicative function of language, not the separate and distinct cognitive process of thinking and reasoning.” Benjamin Riley, Large language mistake, The Verge https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/827820/large-language-models-ai-intelligence-neuroscience-problems [https://perma.cc/7EHD-PLLZ]. When an LLM overstates a holding of a case, it is not because it made a mistake whenlogically working through how that case might represent a “nonfrivolous argument for extending, modifying, or reversing existing law or for establishing new law;” it is just piecing together a plausible-looking sentence – one whose content may or may not be true.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:o6o2u2byc2cellhzzisujort/bafkreibulxeb7xjxeu4x4vpnvjioce3v56qfxgfajy4w7qphe2incglora@jpeg)
December 3, 2025 at 10:51 PM
The only issue I take with this is that when an assistant district attorney from the Collin County District Attorney's Office misstates the holding of a case in a brief, he should not be credited with "metacognitive reasoning" when the fact of the matter is he's just a pathological liar.
Judge: I find you guilty. Do you have anything to say?
Defendant: Two sides to every story
Two paths to finding glory
Start this before the light
No day without the night
Don't be afraid of what you are
Mischief and mayhem can go far
Defendant: Two sides to every story
Two paths to finding glory
Start this before the light
No day without the night
Don't be afraid of what you are
Mischief and mayhem can go far
November 27, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Judge: I find you guilty. Do you have anything to say?
Defendant: Two sides to every story
Two paths to finding glory
Start this before the light
No day without the night
Don't be afraid of what you are
Mischief and mayhem can go far
Defendant: Two sides to every story
Two paths to finding glory
Start this before the light
No day without the night
Don't be afraid of what you are
Mischief and mayhem can go far
Reposted by Doug Gladden
Please stop using language that suggests that people with criminal records are appropriate targets for this administration's violence. One in three adults has a criminal record. Stop playing sacrifice games with fascists. Stop surrendering entire categories of people in your own mind.
November 15, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Please stop using language that suggests that people with criminal records are appropriate targets for this administration's violence. One in three adults has a criminal record. Stop playing sacrifice games with fascists. Stop surrendering entire categories of people in your own mind.
October 28, 2025 at 4:58 PM
What's the correct answer, and why?
September 4, 2025 at 1:24 AM
What's the correct answer, and why?
Reposted by Doug Gladden
Disbar every lawyer involved in this. Seriously.
Monsters like that shouldn't be lawyers much less prosecutors.
Monsters like that shouldn't be lawyers much less prosecutors.
Samuele Jenkins and his wife Jessica Ivey sit in jail grieving their 7-year-old son, Legend, who was hit by a car and killed on May 27.
They're charged with involuntary manslaughter and child abuse for allegedly letting Legend and his 10-year-old brother walk two blocks alone.
nbcnews.to/4kVmMq4
They're charged with involuntary manslaughter and child abuse for allegedly letting Legend and his 10-year-old brother walk two blocks alone.
nbcnews.to/4kVmMq4
June 24, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Disbar every lawyer involved in this. Seriously.
Monsters like that shouldn't be lawyers much less prosecutors.
Monsters like that shouldn't be lawyers much less prosecutors.
That's what he wants us to think
June 18, 2025 at 12:53 PM
That's what he wants us to think
This morning there was a starling in my backyard eating all of the invertebrates crawling around in the grass
The early bird got the worm
The early bird got the worm
June 18, 2025 at 11:46 AM
This morning there was a starling in my backyard eating all of the invertebrates crawling around in the grass
The early bird got the worm
The early bird got the worm
Somehow, every line of this gets progressively worse. And it isn't a short article.
"‘He stole a piece of our souls’: Christian music star Michael Tait accused of sexual assault by three men"
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
"‘He stole a piece of our souls’: Christian music star Michael Tait accused of sexual assault by three men"
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘He stole a piece of our souls’: Christian music star Michael Tait accused of sexual assault by three men
Tait posted on Instagram days ago that for 20 years he lived a ‘double life’ but is working on ‘repentance and healing’
www.theguardian.com
June 16, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Somehow, every line of this gets progressively worse. And it isn't a short article.
"‘He stole a piece of our souls’: Christian music star Michael Tait accused of sexual assault by three men"
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
"‘He stole a piece of our souls’: Christian music star Michael Tait accused of sexual assault by three men"
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Doug Gladden
June 15, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Doug Gladden
For your phone back ground
June 14, 2025 at 4:16 AM
For your phone back ground
Y'all don't mind me while I have a heart attack
June 14, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Y'all don't mind me while I have a heart attack
Just for that I'm going to keep using "(cleaned up)"
OMG
June 11, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Just for that I'm going to keep using "(cleaned up)"
#appellatesky you get one guess how the intermediate Court of Appeals ruled on this request that they order the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court to appoint a new judge to his case
June 11, 2025 at 2:45 PM
#appellatesky you get one guess how the intermediate Court of Appeals ruled on this request that they order the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court to appoint a new judge to his case
It is . . . not nice in North Texas tonight
June 9, 2025 at 3:11 AM
It is . . . not nice in North Texas tonight
Reposted by Doug Gladden
It’s not just that it’s clearly intentional, it’s that it’s clearly intentional knowing that he’s being recorded. They know they can do whatever they want with complete impunity.
Watch the slow motion: it appears to me that the officers discuss the photographer and reporter before the one on the end fires on them (it looks to me like he's aiming at the camera, not the reporter, but you decide)
June 9, 2025 at 3:07 AM
It’s not just that it’s clearly intentional, it’s that it’s clearly intentional knowing that he’s being recorded. They know they can do whatever they want with complete impunity.
Texas made a bunch of state seals for local courthouses and the "S" in "State" is upside down on all of them
June 8, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Texas made a bunch of state seals for local courthouses and the "S" in "State" is upside down on all of them
There goes ChatGPT, hallucinating again
We all know an appellate prosecutor would never be reprimanded for unethical comments in their briefs
We all know an appellate prosecutor would never be reprimanded for unethical comments in their briefs
June 6, 2025 at 2:57 AM
There goes ChatGPT, hallucinating again
We all know an appellate prosecutor would never be reprimanded for unethical comments in their briefs
We all know an appellate prosecutor would never be reprimanded for unethical comments in their briefs
The Chambers Texas appellate rankings are out and once again there are no criminal appellate lawyers on the list so 🤷♂️
June 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM
The Chambers Texas appellate rankings are out and once again there are no criminal appellate lawyers on the list so 🤷♂️
Reposted by Doug Gladden
My least favorite moment in an oral argument was the opposite of this:
Court: {Question}
Me: {Answers}
Court: Where did you argue that in your brief
Me: Page 4
Court: {Flips to page 4 and reads my brief for the first time}
I did not win that case.
Court: {Question}
Me: {Answers}
Court: Where did you argue that in your brief
Me: Page 4
Court: {Flips to page 4 and reads my brief for the first time}
I did not win that case.
Listening to a new batch of oral arguments, I came across this. Don't do this.
Court: {Questions}
Counsel: {Does not answer}
Court: {Sighs} "Well, why don't you tell us what you had prepared to present then?"
Court: {Questions}
Counsel: {Does not answer}
Court: {Sighs} "Well, why don't you tell us what you had prepared to present then?"
June 3, 2025 at 12:48 PM
My least favorite moment in an oral argument was the opposite of this:
Court: {Question}
Me: {Answers}
Court: Where did you argue that in your brief
Me: Page 4
Court: {Flips to page 4 and reads my brief for the first time}
I did not win that case.
Court: {Question}
Me: {Answers}
Court: Where did you argue that in your brief
Me: Page 4
Court: {Flips to page 4 and reads my brief for the first time}
I did not win that case.
Reposted by Doug Gladden
RIP a regular in-class question to students: "what's the only still-existing company from among the imperial monopoly trading corporations from the era of mercantilism Adam Smith rote about?"
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/w...
A 355-Year-Old Company That Once Owned One-Third of Canada Is Shutting Down
www.nytimes.com
June 2, 2025 at 9:43 AM
RIP a regular in-class question to students: "what's the only still-existing company from among the imperial monopoly trading corporations from the era of mercantilism Adam Smith rote about?"
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/w...