A Justice System Worthy of the Next 250 Years

Chief Justice Roberts closed his Year-End Report with a reminder I have been thinking about since last week:

“Those of us in the Third Branch must continue to decide the cases before us according to our oath, doing equal right to the poor and to the rich, and performing all of our duties faithfully and impartially under the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

But what does it mean to faithfully perform those duties in 2026?

While our core ideals like justice, duty, and integrity remain unchanged, the tools of our trade changed rapidly in 2025. Hallucinations are now showing up in routine filings and GenAI is entering our chambers, straining assumptions we have relied on for decades. So as we mark 250 years since our Nation’s founding, we have a collective responsibility to ensure our justice system is fit for this moment.

To that end, I have reorganized my website to serve as an education hub for the legal community. My goal is to provide a central location for resources on navigating these new complexities.

The updated site includes materials on the responsible use of AI by counsel, judicial boundaries for AI in chambers, the identification of deepfakes, and the potential legislative changes required to protect the integrity of the record.

The resources are available at www.JudgeSchlegel.com. I invite you to review them and let me know your thoughts. Please also feel free to share it far and wide if you find it useful.

As we begin 2026, my hope is that these resources spark the thought and dialogue necessary to ensure we are up to the task of performing our duties faithfully for the next 250 years. We owe the next generation a justice system that matches the challenges of this moment with safeguards that protect the public trust.

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