Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc.

Summary

The Court held that Georgia’s official statutory annotations are not copyrightable because their statutory author, the Code Revision Commission, acts as an arm of the legislature and produces them in the discharge of legislative duties. The government edicts doctrine excludes works created by judges and legislators in their official capacities whether or not those works have the force of law. Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the Court, joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh. Justice Thomas dissented, joined by Justice Alito and, except for Part II–A and footnote 6, Justice Breyer; he would protect the annotations because they lack legal force and argued that extending the doctrine should be left to Congress. Justice Ginsburg separately dissented, joined by Justice Breyer, reasoning that these post-enactment, descriptive research materials were not produced in a legislative lawmaking capacity.