Published opinion, 10 July 2026 · source · PDF · 6 pages
The FDOC has moved for sanctions under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 27 and our inherent authority, seeking attor- ney’s fees and to strike portions of Parnell’s reply brief. The FDOC argues that Parnell’s reply brief cites two non-existent court opin- ions and at least five non- existent quotations from our opinions. Parnell responds that he withdraws any erroneous statement s in his reply brief, which renders the FDOC’s motion “moot.” He ar- gues that the errors were not made in bad faith and his reply brief’s arguments are still legally correct.
We ordered supplemental briefing to provide Parnell’s counsel the opportunity to explain where the defective cases and USCA11 Case: 25-11166 Document: 41-1 Date Filed: 07/10/2026 Page: 4 of 6 25-11166 Opinion of the Court 5 quotes came from, but counsel merely repeats that he has been un- able to identify a verified source with the non-existent opinions and that “the challenged material did not come from a verified review of the cited opinions.” Counsel does not provide an exp lanation for how the opinions appeared in the reply brief.1 We are disappointed with counsel’s lack of forthcoming can- dor.
Courts around the world currently face a well-publicized problem of attorneys citing hallucinated authorities. See Damien Charlotin, AI Hallucination Cases , https://perma.cc/U84C-WGA7 (last visited May, 22, 2026) (listing over 1000 judicial decisions deal- ing with AI hallucinations). Presumably, counsel wrote the reply brief,2 and should thus be familiar with how he came to rely on the nonexistent authorities.
Presumably, counsel wrote the reply brief,2 and should thus be familiar with how he came to rely on the nonexistent authorities. Whether the appellant’s citations were generated by AI, as we suspect, or simply made up by counsel, we 1 It seems as though counsel has relied on generative artificial intelligence (AI) in writing his reply brief, as seen through the “hallucinated” cases. See Thomas J Donlon, AI Hallucinations Are Real — and How to Avoid Them , Am.