Do you mean that the script was written by the family, and it was only “performed” by generative AI? That’s very interesting, and not something I heard anywhere else.

Legally speaking, this was a victim impact statement.

Convicted criminals have long had the common law right of allocution, where they can say anything they want directly to the judge before sentence is passed.

Starting a few decades ago, several states decided that the victims of crime should have a similar right to address the judge before sentencing. And so the victim impact statement was created.

It’s not evidence, and it’s not under oath, but it is allowed to influence the sentencing decision.

(Of course, victim impact statements are normally given by real victims).

Sheesh, imagine being that priest, doing daily status updates skipping about 23 levels of chain of command.

This Pope had a personal charity underling who would walk the streets of Rome and hand out cash to people who needed it. The money came from selling autographed indulgences. So I’m not surprised in the least.

Yep, on the grounds that the dragon is not an allegation, a claim for damages, or a request for relief.

Now the branches come too close to grinding irrevocably against one another in a conflict that promises to diminish both. This is a losing proposition all around. The Judiciary will lose much from the constant intimations of its illegitimacy, to which by dent of custom and detachment we can only sparingly reply. The Executive will lose much from a public perception of its lawlessness and all of its attendant contagions. The Executive may succeed for a time in weakening the courts, but over time history will script the tragic gap between what was and all that might have been, and law in time will sign its epitaph.

• Judge Wilkinson. Circuit Judge. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Appointed by Ronald Reagan.