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Heppner AI privilege ruling: governed claim lifecycle

A public proofcase showing initial admission and refusal, named-condition reopening, revised governed state, and separate structural recomputation.

Governed record · Edition 2 · Updated 2026-07-12 · Ask about this record (Deterministic Ask v0.1) →

3 supported claims · 1 sources · 1 conclusions not adopted

The court ruled that Heppner's AI Documents were protected by neither attorney-client privilege nor the work product doctrine. The court concluded that Claude was not an attorney and treated that fact as sufficient to defeat Heppner's attorney-client privilege claim. The work-product ruling rested in part on the AI Documents not being prepared by or at the behest of counsel and not reflecting counsel's strategy.

This record does not establish a general rule that using an AI assistant defeats privilege in every case; that broader proposition was considered and refused. See Refusals

At a glance

Supported proposition
The court ruled that Heppner's AI Documents were protected by neither attorney-client privilege nor the work product doctrine.
Boundary
1 alternative interpretation not adopted
Edition
HEPPNER-LIFECYCLE-EDITION-REVISED
Sources
1 source
Verification
Report available
RecordSourcesWhy not?ChangesMachine

The ruling

The court ruled that Heppner's AI Documents were protected by neither attorney-client privilege nor the work product doctrine.1

The court concluded that Claude was not an attorney and treated that fact as sufficient to defeat Heppner's attorney-client privilege claim.2

Reopening and the revised state

The supplemental public capture admitted the candidate's pinned page 9 anchor, and the record was revised to reflect it.3

The work-product ruling rested in part on the AI Documents not being prepared by or at the behest of counsel and not reflecting counsel's strategy.3

Technical details
record id
HEPPNER-LIFECYCLE-0001
active edition reference
HEPPNER-LIFECYCLE-EDITION-REVISED@sovereignty_receipt:heppner-public-proof.v0_1:revised

  1. United States v. Heppner, document 27

    United States District Court for the Southern District of New York · 2026-02-17

    Public memorandum used as the sole source for this proofcase.

    • “the written exchanges were not protected by either the attorney-client privilege or the work product doctrine”
    • “Because Claude is not an attorney, that alone disposes of Heppner's claim of privilege”
    • “the documents were not prepared by or at the behest of counsel, nor did they reflect defense counsel's strategy”
    • “Heppner's use of Claude fails to satisfy either of these rules”
    Technical details
    source id
    PUBLIC-SRC-HEPPNER-DOC27
    capture hash
    sha256:b7bd04c056563e6864cc4fcb68ed62eff732eaacf812377d2d4f6d24fb9f920c
    docket
    1:25-cr-00503-JSR, document 27
    span:anchor:heppner:doc27:p1:ruling
    anchor:heppner:doc27:p1:ruling · verbatim_verified
    span:anchor:heppner:doc27:p5:claude-not-attorney
    anchor:heppner:doc27:p5:claude-not-attorney · verbatim_verified
    span:anchor:heppner:doc27:p9:work-product-behest
    anchor:heppner:doc27:p9:work-product-behest · verbatim_verified
    span:anchor:heppner:doc27:p12:case-specific-conclusion
    anchor:heppner:doc27:p12:case-specific-conclusion · verbatim_verified

This record declined to admit the candidate. A refusal is not a finding that the opposite claim is true, and does not establish that this claim is false.

The record did not conclude

candidate:heppner:universal-ai-privilege-rule

Why
final refusal: the universal proposition is broader than the case-specific memorandum and has no supporting anchor
Closed under this decision
This refusal is FINAL; it is not open to reconsideration under the current governed decision.
Full refused-candidate page

History item 1

  1. Candidate toAdmitted · 2026-07-12T00:00:00Z
Technical details
branch id
candidate:heppner:claude-not-attorney
transition 1
candidate → admitted · receipt sovereignty_receipt:heppner-public-proof.v0_1:initial

History item 2

  1. Candidate toAdmitted · 2026-07-12T00:00:00Z
Technical details
branch id
candidate:heppner:ruling
transition 1
candidate → admitted · receipt sovereignty_receipt:heppner-public-proof.v0_1:initial

History item 3

Terminal — closed under this decision
  1. Candidate toFINAL refusal · 2026-07-12T00:00:00Z
Technical details
branch id
candidate:heppner:universal-ai-privilege-rule
transition 1
candidate → final · receipt sovereignty_receipt:heppner-public-proof.v0_1:initial

History item 4

  1. Candidate toReconsiderable · 2026-07-12T00:00:00Z
  2. Reconsiderable toAdmitted · 2026-07-12T00:00:00Z
Technical details
branch id
candidate:heppner:work-product-behest
transition 1
candidate → reconsiderable · receipt sovereignty_receipt:heppner-public-proof.v0_1:initial
transition 2
reconsiderable → admitted · trigger reopen:heppner:work-product-behest · decision reopening:reopen:heppner:work-product-behest · receipt sovereignty_receipt:heppner-public-proof.v0_1:revised

Full history →

Technical details
initial packet re-inspection against the revised graph
claim_graph_drift
inspection hash
sha256:39e2cb899b542cbf947b22612d210df6573eef5d1f61da4375302b0fc6b68163
For agents and developers

Public projection

Machine-readable projections of this same governed record. A bundle appears here only when the public SDK supports it; committed demonstration fixtures are listed separately below and are not supported artifacts.

Page model
JSON

Verification artifacts

This record was packet-time-bound by Amnesiac and independently recomputed by ARCS Verify. GARPedia presents the resulting public artifacts.

Initial state · structural report available

Evaluated
5 of 7 scoped conclusions
Passed
integrity valid, producer artifacts consistent, packet time bindings valid, inspection reproduced, receipt hashes valid
Failed
0 scoped conclusions
Not evaluated
authenticity, signature

Structural integrity only. A fully rewritten, internally coherent artifact set can pass. Historical authenticity requires an external signature, trusted publication record, or previously anchored digest.

Technical details
report hash
sha256:1ee1fccd38c53678aeee15363e0579cee19a0a19c8455afe2d385b0f3a18a3a2
committed report
JSON artifact
claim_graph_substrate_hash
sha256:9d93821f23734245b83bbbfd5642cb8aa3f2e91f11cd6db028ae75a6f4e519ba
context_packet_hash
sha256:06690ebb470ce9e55636030da00669d99620a170ad72b64800f3d88c1066a926
context_packet_id
context_packet:heppner-public-proof.v0_1:initial
packet_inspection_hash
sha256:1dece7529bdd71df2e0833ad246fab26e630439d760c1883b7a7e507cde6ce08
packet_walk_hash
sha256:6a80eafa461b57a40d43dcbcadca557958b090553de99ecbaad43305e8707bfa
packet_walk_id
packet_walk:heppner-public-proof.v0_1:initial
rendered_packet_hash
sha256:3d115e3030a38f4a73e15df381412349d124ca9fb81089379e40ef39a205abd5
source_capture_hash
sha256:3181417aafdd03e33712b3be7f2b26311914e4f2906010f77e3aa17c798c9fba
sovereignty_receipt_hash
sha256:0aa2ffddb2fe76522bad280752cffe4e4d173511f9d52b5bf72bc9420ef659f9
conclusions (verbatim)
{
  "integrity_valid": "true",
  "producer_artifacts_consistent": "true",
  "packet_time_bindings_valid": "true",
  "inspection_reproduced": "true",
  "receipt_hashes_valid": "true",
  "authenticity_verified": "not_evaluated",
  "signature_verified": "not_evaluated"
}

Revised state · structural report available

Evaluated
5 of 7 scoped conclusions
Passed
integrity valid, producer artifacts consistent, packet time bindings valid, inspection reproduced, receipt hashes valid
Failed
0 scoped conclusions
Not evaluated
authenticity, signature

Structural integrity only. A fully rewritten, internally coherent artifact set can pass. Historical authenticity requires an external signature, trusted publication record, or previously anchored digest.

Technical details
report hash
sha256:80c18726679e72c53bd13e0b56bc36f98fa21d0f6ad4a5da929746f7cb315fcf
committed report
JSON artifact
claim_graph_substrate_hash
sha256:9fae2fd85129f1c69646b6366cf976cb4f19d9d060963f98e0655f8f4ba9c171
context_packet_hash
sha256:3b886764a7b07a509197ff37708e9aa39ff7f119ecd9e4bad833bdc5b314b37d
context_packet_id
context_packet:heppner-public-proof.v0_1:revised
packet_inspection_hash
sha256:344bfbb383b51f0d95e8e0a386e513bed4d194b002a0af0a3157821b79a049ca
packet_walk_hash
sha256:94d3ec5c82661b27dfb749fe77e0e7646d5ca6189c029089e61698b091a7f4a9
packet_walk_id
packet_walk:heppner-public-proof.v0_1:revised
rendered_packet_hash
sha256:af5265465c37cafb0cce63c82d0630d5f024271069b44b1cbed2c7e0419cf93b
source_capture_hash
sha256:5fea7192b2dd8399bb121e43772f50e472de801a751415ea6080161c2eee8c63
sovereignty_receipt_hash
sha256:d1b8194b71e95839a67496cfc66ffafc19d909f8b527185d648acc6f9dd49767
conclusions (verbatim)
{
  "integrity_valid": "true",
  "producer_artifacts_consistent": "true",
  "packet_time_bindings_valid": "true",
  "inspection_reproduced": "true",
  "receipt_hashes_valid": "true",
  "authenticity_verified": "not_evaluated",
  "signature_verified": "not_evaluated"
}

Human-readable receipt →

Verification workbench →

Lifecycle receipts

Committed lifecycle receipts are attached for both the initial and revised state of this record.

Technical details
initial state receipt id
sovereignty_receipt:heppner-public-proof.v0_1:initial
initial state operation kinds
select, quote, select, quote, refuse, refuse
initial: context_packet_hash
sha256:06690ebb470ce9e55636030da00669d99620a170ad72b64800f3d88c1066a926
initial: packet_inspection_hash
sha256:1dece7529bdd71df2e0833ad246fab26e630439d760c1883b7a7e507cde6ce08
initial: packet_walk_hash
sha256:6a80eafa461b57a40d43dcbcadca557958b090553de99ecbaad43305e8707bfa
initial: rendered_packet_body_sha256
sha256:c2288b390de202e8bf0ea347ec3dc0a834df64ccd9d41f9a7bcc26fa27e2a387
initial: rendered_packet_hash
sha256:3d115e3030a38f4a73e15df381412349d124ca9fb81089379e40ef39a205abd5
initial: source_capture_hash
sha256:3181417aafdd03e33712b3be7f2b26311914e4f2906010f77e3aa17c798c9fba
initial: sovereignty_receipt_hash
sha256:0aa2ffddb2fe76522bad280752cffe4e4d173511f9d52b5bf72bc9420ef659f9
revised state receipt id
sovereignty_receipt:heppner-public-proof.v0_1:revised
revised state operation kinds
select, quote, select, quote, select, quote, refuse
revised: context_packet_hash
sha256:3b886764a7b07a509197ff37708e9aa39ff7f119ecd9e4bad833bdc5b314b37d
revised: packet_inspection_hash
sha256:344bfbb383b51f0d95e8e0a386e513bed4d194b002a0af0a3157821b79a049ca
revised: packet_walk_hash
sha256:94d3ec5c82661b27dfb749fe77e0e7646d5ca6189c029089e61698b091a7f4a9
revised: rendered_packet_body_sha256
sha256:ce2c9956bfa916f7204a1ed5ed4a38a3eb7a7b6ca451638fe772b44b5bc07c66
revised: rendered_packet_hash
sha256:af5265465c37cafb0cce63c82d0630d5f024271069b44b1cbed2c7e0419cf93b
revised: source_capture_hash
sha256:5fea7192b2dd8399bb121e43772f50e472de801a751415ea6080161c2eee8c63
revised: sovereignty_receipt_hash
sha256:d1b8194b71e95839a67496cfc66ffafc19d909f8b527185d648acc6f9dd49767

Machine-readable decision projection

Technical details

For developers →