Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1150_new_d18e.pdf
Page Number: 28.0

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

7 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

Court’s conclusion that the “authentic exposition and inter-
pretation of the law . . . is free for publication to all.”  Banks, 
128 U. S., at 253. 

Finally, concerns of fair notice, often recognized by this 
Court’s  precedents  as  an  important  component  of  due 
process,  also  may  have  animated  the  reasoning  of  these 
19th-century cases.  As one court put it, “[t]he decisions and
opinions of the justices are the authorized expositions and 
interpretations of the laws, which are binding upon all the 
citizens. . . . Every citizen is presumed to know the law thus 
declared, and it needs no argument to show that justice re-
quires  that  all  should  have  free  access  to  the  opinions.” 
Nash v. Lathrop, 142 Mass. 29, 35, 6 N. E. 559, 560 (1886) 
(cited in Banks, 128 U. S., at 253–254); see also American 
Soc. for Testing and Materials v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc., 
896  F. 3d  437,  458–459  (CADC  2018)  (Katsas,  J.,  concur-
ring). 

B 
Allowing annotations to be copyrighted does not run afoul 
of  any  of  these  possible  justifications  for  the  government 
edicts doctrine.  First, unlike judicial opinions and statutes, 
these annotations do not even purport to embody the will of 
the people because they are not law.  The General Assembly
of Georgia has made abundantly clear through a variety of 
provisions that the annotations do not create any binding 
obligations.  OCGA §1–1–7 states that “[a]ll historical cita-
tions, title and chapter analyses, and notes set out in this 
Code are given for the purpose of convenient reference and 
do  not  constitute  part  of  the  law.”    Section  1–1–1  further 
provides that “[t]he statutory portion of the codification of 
Georgia laws . . . is enacted and shall have the effect of stat-
utes enacted by the General Assembly of Georgia.  The stat-
utory portion of such codification shall be merged with an-
notations . . . and other materials . . . and shall be published
by  authority  of  the  state.”    Thus,  although  the  materials