Creative Commons, OERs and Beyond

The major issue in the case, and its importance for American law, was the conclusion that the opinions of justices and by extension other documents written by public officials acting in their official capacity belonged to the public. Such documents were forever in the public domain and immune from copyright.

Melvin I. Urofsky, Henry Wheaton and Richard Peters, Wheaton v. Peters: "Owning" the Law, in 100 Americans Making Constitutional History 202-04 (2004), http://library.cqpress.com/scc/amcons-228-9677-607865.