Well-settled precedent establishes that state and federal law is not protected by copyright. The situation had, however, been less clear with respect to annotations and commentary on the law. Under the century-old Supreme Court case of Callaghan v. Myers, 128 U.S. 618 (1888), a private reporter’s annotations and commentary on the law (which itself has no legal force) is subject to copyright protection. In yesterday’s 5-4 opinion, the Supreme Court determined whether a state may itself hold copyright in annotations and commentary authored by the state (or with the state’s imprimatur) on its state code. The majority’s answer was “no.”
