SCOTUS couldn't take up a copyright case because four justices have book deals

The US Supreme Court couldn’t take up a copyright law dispute after four justices with book deals with a party linked to the case declined to participate.

The court said Monday that the recusals caused it to lack a quorum to consider a petition brought by BMG Rights Management LLC and other publishers, and that the other five justices agreed the case couldn’t be heard this term. The case would have addressed whether creators exercising their right to terminate deals signing away their rights decades later could include foreign rights.

The answer to the question the court declined to definitively answer carries massive implications for the valuation of any works like music or movie franchises with global markets spanning decades. With the Fifth Circuit bucking a long-running consensus by finding creators can reclaim foreign rights, the outcome will impact valuations, generate litigation, and spur forum-shopping, attorneys said.

“It’s going to have a real impact on the business side of things because of the ambiguity as to whether those future rights can be recaptured,” entertainment IP attorney David Gold of Cole Schotz said. “It’s going to be a race to the courthouse.”

The court disclosed that Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson took no part in the consideration of the petition.

The justices didn’t offer reasons for their decision, but BMG Rights is owned by Bertelsmann SE, a German media conglomerate that also owns Penguin Random House, the US publishing giant that has published books authored by those four justices.

That includes publishing memoirs by Jackson and Barrett in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

The Supreme Court didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment on the recusals.

Book publishing has proved to be a lucrative endeavor for the justices, with all but two having authored a book or signed contracts to do so. Monday’s announcement shows how those activities can have far-reaching consequences, keeping the court from considering a dispute prompting sharp disagreements in the lower courts.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a statutorty affirmance by default, ever,” Gold said.

In declining to take up BMG Right’s Management’s petition, the court affirmed a lower court ruling that Cyril Vetter, who co-wrote the 1960s song “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love),” could and had reclaimed worldwide rights to the song.

Vetter had previously convinced a court that by treaty, the country closest to the work determines ownership while enforcement hinges on law where it happens.

“IP landscape-wise, we have a problem,” IP law professor Philippa Loengard of Columbia University said of courts’ divergent views. “It’s going to lead to a lot more litigation as creators attempt to reclaim rights abroad, and a lot more effort by creators to get Vetter rationale accepted in other circuits.”

District courts in the US Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Second circuits have rejected recovery of assigned foreign rights with US law leading to an industry consensus. BMG also argued the Second Circuit itself presented a definite split.

But the Fifth Circuit ruling — which attorneys deemed “a shock” but also “very well-reasoned” — rejected that reasoning based on its interpretation of the Berne Convention, an international copyright treaty to which the US is a party. The opinion also said the Second Circuit opinion didn’t address the precise question at issue.

Termination rights allow creators to nullify assignments generally 35 to 40 years after they sign away the rights at issue. They were designed to help creators who often give up their rights before their true value was known, often from a poor bargaining position.

Vetter in 2019 began seeking termination of his assignment of rights to the song made famous in performances by the Swingin’ Medallions and Dick Holler And The Holidays. Resnik Music Group, which acquired the song, argued it retained the rights after the termination became effective in 2022.

The US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana granted Vetter’s motion for summary judgment, and the Fifth Circuit affirmed. In the Berne Convention, 181 countries agreed to recognize an original copyright, not create new parallel rights with independent fates, it reasoned.

BMG and other related entities acquired Resnik’s interest in the song, and substituted themselves as the plaintiff in March. Music, movie, and photo industry groups filed amicus briefs supporting BMG’s position and arguing the court should take up the case.

Monday’s decision marks at least the second time that the court lacked a quorum in a case connected to Bertelsmann SE. In May 2025, Alito joined Sotomayor, Gorsuch, Barrett, and Jackson in not participating in a case linked to the company.

Alito published his first book, So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court and Our Country, earlier this year under Basic Books’ Basic Liberty imprint.

The case is BMG Rights Mgmt. LLC v. Vetter, U.S., No. 25-1391, affirmed 10/19/26.

(Updates with additional reporting throughout.)

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