Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1150_new_d18e.pdf
Page Number: 25.0

4 

GEORGIA v. PUBLIC.RESOURCE.ORG, INC. 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

Court  addressed  the  limits  of  the  government  edicts  doc-
trine.  In that case, the Court settled another dispute be-
tween  a  publisher  of  court  decisions  and  an  alleged  in-
fringer.  The  plaintiff  purchased  the  proprietary  rights  to
the  reports  prepared  by  the  Illinois  Supreme  Court’s  re-
porter of decisions, Freeman, including the copyright to the 
reports.  Unlike in Banks, these reports also contained ma-
terial authored by Freeman.  Callaghan, 128 U. S., at 645. 
The  alleged  infringers  copied  the  judicial  decisions  and
Freeman’s materials.  In finding for the plaintiff, this Court 
reiterated that “there can be no copyright in the opinions of 
the judges, or in the work done by them in their official ca-
pacity as judges.”  Id., at 647 (citing Banks, 128 U. S. 244).
But the Court concluded that “no [similar] ground of public 
policy”  justified  denying  a  state  official  a  copyright 
“cover[ing] the matter which is the result of his intellectual 
labor.”  Callaghan, 128 U. S., at 647. 

II 

These precedents establish that judicial opinions cannot 
be copyrighted.  But they do not exclude from copyright pro-
tection notes that are prepared by an official court reporter 
and published together with the reported opinions.  There 
is no apparent reason why the same logic would not apply 
to statutes and regulations.  Thus, it must follow from our 
precedents  that  statutes  and  regulations  cannot  be  copy-
righted, but accompanying notes lacking legal force can be.  
See Howell v. Miller, 91 F. 129 (CA6 1898) (Harlan, J.) (ex-
plaining that, under Banks and Callaghan, annotations to 
Michigan statutes could be copyrighted). 

A 
It is fair to say that the Court’s 19th-century decisions do
not  provide  any  extended  explanation  of  the  basis  for  the 
government  edicts  doctrine.    The  majority  is  nonetheless