Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/11pdf/10-545.pdf
Page Number: 17

Cite as:  565 U. S. ____ (2012) 

13 

Opinion of the Court 

court  concluded,  because  §514’s  constriction  of  the  public 
domain  was  not  justified  by  any  of  the  asserted  federal 
interests: compliance with Berne, securing greater protec-
tion for U. S. authors abroad, or remediation of the inequi-
table  treatment  suffered  by  foreign  authors  whose  works
lacked protection in the United States.  611 F. Supp. 2d, at 
1172–1177. 

The  Tenth  Circuit  reversed.    Deferring  to  Congress’ 
predictive judgments in matters relating to foreign affairs,
the  appellate  court  held  that  §514  survived  First  Amend-
ment scrutiny.  Specifically, the court determined that the
law was narrowly tailored to fit the important government
aim of protecting U. S. copyright holders’ interests abroad.
609 F. 3d 1076 (2010).

We  granted  certiorari  to  consider  petitioners’  challenge
to  §514  under  both  the  Copyright  Clause  and  the  First 
Amendment, 562 U. S. ___ (2011), and now affirm. 

II 
We  first  address  petitioners’  argument  that  Congress
lacked  authority,  under  the  Copyright  Clause,  to  enact
§514.  The  Constitution  states  that  “Congress  shall  have 
Power  . . .  [t]o  promote  the  Progress  of  Science  . . .  by 
securing  for  limited  Times  to  Authors  . . .  the  exclusive 
Right  to  their  . . .  Writings.”    Art. I,  §8,  cl. 8.  Petitioners 
find  in  this  grant  of  authority  an  impenetrable  barrier  to
the  extension  of  copyright  protection  to  authors  whose 
writings,  for  whatever  reason,  are  in  the  public  domain. 
We see no such barrier in the text of the Copyright Clause,
historical practice, or our precedents. 

A 
The text of the Copyright Clause does not exclude appli-
cation  of  copyright  protection  to  works  in  the  public  do-
main.  Symposium,  Congressional  Power  and  Limitations
Inherent in the Copyright Clause, 30 Colum. J. L. & Arts