{"id":153046,"date":"2026-05-27T15:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/27\/will-the-popes-weighing-in-on-ai-impact-legal-education\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T15:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:40:09","slug":"will-the-popes-weighing-in-on-ai-impact-legal-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/27\/will-the-popes-weighing-in-on-ai-impact-legal-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Will The Pope\u2019s Weighing In On AI Impact Legal Education?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pope\u2019s interventions in public policy over the last few years have been very interesting. We\u2019ve seen Pope Francis taking our current administration to task for their treatment of migrants and refugees<\/a> and Pope Leo\u2019s apology for the Church\u2019s role in legitimizing slavery<\/a>. But a recent statement, namely Pope Leo\u2019s published thoughts on humanity\u2019s use of AI, has people asking questions about what that means for respecting religious exemptions: <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
via Threads<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pope Leo isn\u2019t the only one grappling with AI\u2019s purpose. UC Berkeley Law just released a strict AI policy for pedagogical reasons, but law schools with more relaxed policies could be forced to accommodate or change their use of AI for religious reasons. Utah just passed a law that lets students opt out of religious content that goes against their religious beliefs<\/a>. At the time of drafting, the violating content in mind was more likely to be women kissing and geological modules on the existence of fossils, but I see no reason why professors assigning students to use AI on an assignment or requiring students to take a test that the professor used AI to create wouldn\u2019t run the risk of violating a student\u2019s religious sensibilities. Utah is a very Mormon state and their Church\u2019s stances on AI use are more focused on salvation and exaltation than legal pedagogy, but nothing should prevent a Catholic law student from availing the new law to get reasonable accommodations made for them if they believe that a teacher\u2019s assignment requires an ungodly use of AI.<\/p>\n

As I sat to write this, I thought about reading the entirety of Pope Leo\u2019s \u201cMagnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence<\/em>\u201d so that I could make well-supported and nuanced arguments about how his (and the Church\u2019s) stance on God honoring AI use could affect policies like Utah\u2019s religious vibe law if other states were to adopt it. But then I remembered the text doesn\u2019t actually<\/em> matter \u2014 it isn\u2019t like courts check to see if the professed religious beliefs are in line with the religion\u2019s dogma. There is nothing barring students from opposing aspects of exam content via mutually exclusive religious viewpoints, even if a common sense reading of the text would show that both students made clear interpretive errors in their reasoning. I understand why that would be the case. The main purpose of the separation clause is to ensure that there is no state-established religion, and if courts were vested with the authority to determine out which religious beliefs were worth honoring, that\u2019s just the state endorsing some religions while excluding others. For example, a court ruling that Catholic teachings on blood transfusions are fair game but Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses\u2019 beliefs go too far <\/a>is just \u201cThis state punishes JWs for their faith\u201d with extra steps.<\/p>\n

Opting out of an assignment that requires AI is an easy fix: professors are usually creative enough that they can find a workaround. The trickier objection would be if the student held that doing an assignment generated in part by AI was against their religious beliefs. Would that put the onus on professors to prove that they wrote their assignments without any help from LLMs? What is the threshold for reasonable accommodation of religious preferences in the classroom?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no clear answer as to the exact waters law students and professors need to become comfortable wading into to do their jobs effectively.<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: New Utah Law Lets Students Skip Content They Don\u2019t Believe In. And You Thought Teaching Con Law Was Bad Before\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

UC Berkeley Cracks Down On AI Use With New Policy<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn\u2019t hurt either. You can reach him by email at christopherrashadwilliams@gmail.com<\/a> and by Tweet\/Bluesky at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Will The Pope\u2019s Weighing In On AI Impact Legal Education?<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pope\u2019s interventions in public policy over the last few years have been very interesting. We\u2019ve seen Pope Francis taking our current administration to task for their treatment of migrants and refugees<\/a> and Pope Leo\u2019s apology for the Church\u2019s role in legitimizing slavery<\/a>. But a recent statement, namely Pope Leo\u2019s published thoughts on humanity\u2019s use of AI, has people asking questions about what that means for respecting religious exemptions: <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
via Threads<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pope Leo isn\u2019t the only one grappling with AI\u2019s purpose. UC Berkeley Law just released a strict AI policy for pedagogical reasons, but law schools with more relaxed policies could be forced to accommodate or change their use of AI for religious reasons. Utah just passed a law that lets students opt out of religious content that goes against their religious beliefs<\/a>. At the time of drafting, the violating content in mind was more likely to be women kissing and geological modules on the existence of fossils, but I see no reason why professors assigning students to use AI on an assignment or requiring students to take a test that the professor used AI to create wouldn\u2019t run the risk of violating a student\u2019s religious sensibilities. Utah is a very Mormon state and their Church\u2019s stances on AI use are more focused on salvation and exaltation than legal pedagogy, but nothing should prevent a Catholic law student from availing the new law to get reasonable accommodations made for them if they believe that a teacher\u2019s assignment requires an ungodly use of AI.<\/p>\n

As I sat to write this, I thought about reading the entirety of Pope Leo\u2019s \u201cMagnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence<\/em>\u201d so that I could make well-supported and nuanced arguments about how his (and the Church\u2019s) stance on God honoring AI use could affect policies like Utah\u2019s religious vibe law if other states were to adopt it. But then I remembered the text doesn\u2019t actually<\/em> matter \u2014 it isn\u2019t like courts check to see if the professed religious beliefs are in line with the religion\u2019s dogma. There is nothing barring students from opposing aspects of exam content via mutually exclusive religious viewpoints, even if a common sense reading of the text would show that both students made clear interpretive errors in their reasoning. I understand why that would be the case. The main purpose of the separation clause is to ensure that there is no state-established religion, and if courts were vested with the authority to determine out which religious beliefs were worth honoring, that\u2019s just the state endorsing some religions while excluding others. For example, a court ruling that Catholic teachings on blood transfusions are fair game but Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses\u2019 beliefs go too far <\/a>is just \u201cThis state punishes JWs for their faith\u201d with extra steps.<\/p>\n

Opting out of an assignment that requires AI is an easy fix: professors are usually creative enough that they can find a workaround. The trickier objection would be if the student held that doing an assignment generated in part by AI was against their religious beliefs. Would that put the onus on professors to prove that they wrote their assignments without any help from LLMs? What is the threshold for reasonable accommodation of religious preferences in the classroom?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no clear answer as to the exact waters law students and professors need to become comfortable wading into to do their jobs effectively.<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: New Utah Law Lets Students Skip Content They Don\u2019t Believe In. And You Thought Teaching Con Law Was Bad Before\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

UC Berkeley Cracks Down On AI Use With New Policy<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn\u2019t hurt either. You can reach him by email at christopherrashadwilliams@gmail.com<\/a> and by Tweet\/Bluesky at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Will The Pope\u2019s Weighing In On AI Impact Legal Education?<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pope\u2019s interventions in public policy over the last few years have been very interesting. We\u2019ve seen Pope Francis taking our current administration to task for their treatment of migrants and refugees and Pope Leo\u2019s apology for the Church\u2019s role in legitimizing slavery. But a recent statement, namely Pope Leo\u2019s published thoughts on humanity\u2019s use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":153035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chris-Williams-2025-gwW46Y.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}