I find it very concerning that federal money was used by Northwestern University to develop a program that allows AI to search a database of all the legal opinions from 2016 and 2017 in an effort to make forum shopping and judge shopping very easy.
And wait until you find out who was in charge of building this database of “transparency.” 🧵🧵
And wait until you find out who was in charge of building this database of “transparency.” 🧵🧵
1/ Who is Rachel Davis Mersey?
Rachel Davis Mersey is a journalism and media expert, currently Executive Vice President and Provost at Southern Methodist University (SMU, since June 2025).
She was Interim Provost at UT Austin (2024–2025) and Associate Professor at Northwestern’s Medill School.
Her leadership of the SCALES project and past role at Meta raise concerns about censorship and lawfare against conservatives due to her ties to Meta and the Biden administration.
Sources:
UT News, May 9, 2024
SMU News, April 23, 2025
Northwestern University, March 17, 2021
Rachel Davis Mersey is a journalism and media expert, currently Executive Vice President and Provost at Southern Methodist University (SMU, since June 2025).
She was Interim Provost at UT Austin (2024–2025) and Associate Professor at Northwestern’s Medill School.
Her leadership of the SCALES project and past role at Meta raise concerns about censorship and lawfare against conservatives due to her ties to Meta and the Biden administration.
Sources:
UT News, May 9, 2024
SMU News, April 23, 2025
Northwestern University, March 17, 2021
2/ Mersey’s Role at Meta
Mersey served as Director of Global Research Partnerships at Meta (then Facebook), managing data-sharing with academics to study social media’s impact (e.g., 2020 U.S. Election Study).
She liaised with U.S. policymakers including Biden officials post-2021, on data policies.
Sources:
LinkedIn Profile, Rachel Davis Mersey, accessed April 20, 2025
Meta Research, August 2020
The Daily Northwestern, March 17, 2021
Mersey served as Director of Global Research Partnerships at Meta (then Facebook), managing data-sharing with academics to study social media’s impact (e.g., 2020 U.S. Election Study).
She liaised with U.S. policymakers including Biden officials post-2021, on data policies.
Sources:
LinkedIn Profile, Rachel Davis Mersey, accessed April 20, 2025
Meta Research, August 2020
The Daily Northwestern, March 17, 2021
3/ Meta’s Censorship of Conservatives
Meta has been accused of censoring conservative content, including removing “Stop the Steal” posts after January 6, 2021, suspending Trump’s accounts for two years, and down-ranking conservative media during the 2020 election.
Zuckerberg admitted to Biden administration pressure in 2021 to censor COVID-19 content, suggesting government-tech collusion.
Her role in Meta role involved engaging U.S. policymakers, likely including Biden administration officials after January 2021, on data-sharing policies
Mersey’s Meta tenure fuels distrust in her SCALES leadership.
Sources:
NBC News, January 7, 2021
The Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2021
Fox News, February 15, 2022
Meta has been accused of censoring conservative content, including removing “Stop the Steal” posts after January 6, 2021, suspending Trump’s accounts for two years, and down-ranking conservative media during the 2020 election.
Zuckerberg admitted to Biden administration pressure in 2021 to censor COVID-19 content, suggesting government-tech collusion.
Her role in Meta role involved engaging U.S. policymakers, likely including Biden administration officials after January 2021, on data-sharing policies
Mersey’s Meta tenure fuels distrust in her SCALES leadership.
Sources:
NBC News, January 7, 2021
The Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2021
Fox News, February 15, 2022
5/ What is SCALES?
SCALES (Systematic Content Analysis of Litigation Events) is an NSF-funded project Mersey led at Northwestern, using AI to analyze federal court records for transparency.
It provides journalists and researchers with data on judicial outcomes (e.g., bankruptcy inequities), but its AI-driven outputs could be manipulated for partisan lawfare against conservatives.
Sources:
Northwestern University, March 17, 2021
SCALES (Systematic Content Analysis of Litigation Events) is an NSF-funded project Mersey led at Northwestern, using AI to analyze federal court records for transparency.
It provides journalists and researchers with data on judicial outcomes (e.g., bankruptcy inequities), but its AI-driven outputs could be manipulated for partisan lawfare against conservatives.
Sources:
Northwestern University, March 17, 2021
6/ Federal Funding of SCALES
SCALES is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a federal agency, supporting its transparency goals.
Conservatives, wary of federal involvement in censorship (e.g., Biden’s pressure on Meta), may view NSF funding as enabling SCALES to support democrat aligned lawfare.
Sources:
- SCALES Project Website, accessed April 20, 2025
- NSF Award Search, accessed April 20, 2025
- The Hill, September 1, 2021
SCALES is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a federal agency, supporting its transparency goals.
Conservatives, wary of federal involvement in censorship (e.g., Biden’s pressure on Meta), may view NSF funding as enabling SCALES to support democrat aligned lawfare.
Sources:
- SCALES Project Website, accessed April 20, 2025
- NSF Award Search, accessed April 20, 2025
- The Hill, September 1, 2021
7/ How SCALES Could Be Weaponized for Lawfare Against Conservatives
SCALES’s AI enables forum shopping by analyzing court data to identify favorable judges or jurisdictions. Progressive groups could use it to:
- File lawsuits against conservative figures (e.g., election officials, conservative nonprofits) in liberal courts hostile to conservative causes.
- Amplify anti-conservative media narratives by highlighting legal losses, mirroring Meta’s censorship policies.
SCALES’s AI enables forum shopping by analyzing court data to identify favorable judges or jurisdictions. Progressive groups could use it to:
- File lawsuits against conservative figures (e.g., election officials, conservative nonprofits) in liberal courts hostile to conservative causes.
- Amplify anti-conservative media narratives by highlighting legal losses, mirroring Meta’s censorship policies.
8/ AI Manipulation Risks in SCALES
- Biased Training Data:
SCALES’s AI could be trained on datasets prioritizing progressive issues (e.g., “disinformation” or environmental cases), skewing outputs to favor anti-conservative litigation.
- Selective Outputs: Algorithms could highlight judges or courts with anti-conservative rulings, guiding lawfare to hostile jurisdictions.
- Media Exploitation: Journalists could use SCALES’s data to amplify conservative legal defeats, reinforcing Biden-aligned narratives.
No evidence confirms intentional bias, but Mersey’s Meta ties raise concerns.
The question is, was this w project that was designed to enhance the leftist lawfare machine?
- Biased Training Data:
SCALES’s AI could be trained on datasets prioritizing progressive issues (e.g., “disinformation” or environmental cases), skewing outputs to favor anti-conservative litigation.
- Selective Outputs: Algorithms could highlight judges or courts with anti-conservative rulings, guiding lawfare to hostile jurisdictions.
- Media Exploitation: Journalists could use SCALES’s data to amplify conservative legal defeats, reinforcing Biden-aligned narratives.
No evidence confirms intentional bias, but Mersey’s Meta ties raise concerns.
The question is, was this w project that was designed to enhance the leftist lawfare machine?
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