A federal appeals court decided this week to reverse an injunction preventing the enforcement of a state law banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Mississippi public schools and universities.
The court has also ordered the case be reassigned to a new district judge, after his staff used artificial intelligence to draft an order in the case.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision means the law can now be enforced in classrooms across the state. It also resolves a key concern of the plaintiffs: that the law would be interpreted to prohibit discussions of issues related to race, sex and civil rights, said Rob McDuff, one of their attorneys.
“This interpretation by the Court is good news for public school teachers and students throughout the state and signals that they can continue teaching and learning about these subjects as they have for many years,” he said.
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office defended the law, which was passed during the 2025 legislative session. State attorneys told the court last year that the state government has the right to regulate educational content in public schools.
But U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate sided with the plaintiffs’ attorneys — arguing on behalf of students, parents and educators — that the law was dangerously vague and violated the constitutional right to free speech.
U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate smiles, Aug. 19, 2022, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)As the lawsuit was playing out in court, Wingate came under fire amid revelations that his staff used artificial intelligence to draft an order in the case. The order was riddled with errors — naming defendants and plaintiffs who weren’t parties to the case, misquoting state law and referencing a nonexistent case.
Wingate, who was appointed in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan, initially declined to explain the errors until U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley demanded an explanation.
The appeals court judges criticized Wingate in the Thursday order vacating his injunction.
“The proceedings in the district court were a botch job, to say the least,” the order stated.
In September, Anthony Shults, the state deputy solicitor general, told the three-judge appeals panel that the state has a legal right to regulate the material that public educators teach students. He also said he believed a new judge should take over the case.
McDuff argued that the law’s vagueness would cause chaos, and he told an appellate judge that Wingate’s error was serious, but “it’s not as if AI told Judge Wingate to grant” the injunction.
While the law can now be enforced in public school classrooms and colleges, its scope is fairly narrow as interpreted by the appeals court, McDuff said.
“In sum, the Act does not apply to students,” the order reads. Other parts of the document say the law names a number of exemptions, including scholarly work, the activities of students and their groups, and creative engagement.
A footnote says the plaintiffs were wrong to claim that the law would ban the discussion of civil rights history, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Ku Klux Klan, the 14th Amendment and Juneteenth.
“We’ve got to study the decision more carefully to see how it plays out in the future and go from there,” McDuff said. “But I don’t think this will be much of a problem in the future.”
A new judge will be assigned to the case at a later date.
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