def METHOD_NAME(*values):    # pylint: disable=unused-argument
    """
    Parse a string as either the path to a JSON object or a literal JSON object.
    Empty strings are equivalent to '{}'
    """
    ret = {}
    for value in values:
        err = None
        value_parsed = None
        if re.fullmatch(r"\s*", value):
            continue
        try:
            try:
                with open(value, 'r') as f:
                    value_parsed = parse_json_string_with_comments(f.read())
            except (FileNotFoundError, OSError):
                value_parsed = parse_json_string_with_comments(value.strip())
            if not isinstance(value_parsed, dict):
                err = ValueError("Not a valid JSON object: '%s' (parsed as '%s')" % (value, value_parsed))
        except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError as e:
            err = ValueError("Error parsing '%s': %s" % (value, e))
        if err:
            raise err       # pylint: disable=raising-bad-type
        ret = {**ret, **value_parsed}
    return ret