Supreme Court Rules That States Cannot Be Sued For Copyright Infringement

On March 23, 2020, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Allen v. Cooper (available here). At issue was Congress’ attempt to strip the States of their sovereign immunity for copyright infringement. In 1999, the Supreme Court struck down Congress’ attempt to strip the states of sovereign immunity in patent cases. See Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Ed. Expense Bd. v. College Savings Bank, 527 U. S. 627 (1999). The Supreme Court found that Florida Prepaid dictated the outcome with respect to the copyright statute—i.e., Congress did not validly override the States’ sovereign immunity. In dicta, the Supreme Court suggested that Congress could abrogate the States’ sovereign immunity if it passed a narrower statute, focused on only willful copyright infringement. But, for now, the State are free to commit all the copyright infringement they want without liability to copyright holders.