## Facts

- Blackbeard’s ship, the *Queen Anne’s Revenge*, sank off the coast of North Carolina in 1718.
- In 1996, marine salvage company Intersal, Inc. discovered the wreck.
- By law, the State of North Carolina owned the wreck and contracted with Intersal to conduct recovery operations.
- Intersal hired Frederick L. Allen, a videographer, to document the recovery work.
- Over more than a decade, Allen created photographs and videos of the recovery efforts and registered copyrights in those works.
- North Carolina later used several of Allen’s photos and videos without his permission, including posting them online.
- Allen sued North Carolina in federal court for copyright infringement and relied on the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990 (CRCA), which states that a State “shall not be immune” from suit in federal court for copyright infringement.
- North Carolina moved to dismiss, asserting Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity and arguing that CRCA was unconstitutional.
- The district court denied the motion to dismiss, ruling that CRCA validly abrogated immunity as legislation enforcing Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
- The Fourth Circuit reversed, concluding that CRCA’s abrogation was not a valid exercise of Section 5 power, and that Article I could not justify abrogation.
- The Supreme Court granted certiorari. It was undisputed that, before enacting CRCA, Congress had identified only limited evidence of intentional state copyright infringement.

## Issues

1. Whether Congress validly abrogated state sovereign immunity for copyright infringement suits through the CRCA under Article I’s Intellectual Property Clause.
2. Whether CRCA is valid Section 5 legislation because it is tailored to remedy or prevent Fourteenth Amendment violations (deprivations of property without due process).

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed the Fourth Circuit’s judgment and held that CRCA does not validly abrogate state sovereign immunity.
- The Court accepted that CRCA uses unequivocal language expressing Congress’s intent to subject States to federal copyright suits, satisfying the clear-statement requirement.
- The Court held that Article I cannot supply the power to abrogate state sovereign immunity in federal court, and prior precedent (including *Florida Prepaid*) controlled; the Bankruptcy Clause decision in *Katz* did not alter that rule outside the bankruptcy context.
- The Court held that CRCA was not a valid exercise of Congress’s Section 5 enforcement power because it was not congruent and proportional to any demonstrated pattern of unconstitutional state conduct.
- The Court reasoned that a due process violation in this setting would involve (at least) intentional or reckless infringement plus the absence of adequate state remedies, and Congress’s record before enacting CRCA did not show widespread unconstitutional deprivations by States.
- The Court noted that Congress may attempt a more targeted statute supported by a stronger legislative record.

## Legal Principles

- A statute stripping States of sovereign immunity must (1) clearly state Congress’s intent to abrogate and (2) rest on a valid constitutional grant of power.
- Congress may not use Article I powers, including the Intellectual Property Clause, to authorize private damages suits against nonconsenting States in federal court.
- *Central Virginia Community College v. Katz* reflects a bankruptcy-specific historical exception and does not create a general clause-by-clause approach allowing Article I abrogation.
- Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment permits remedial legislation only when the remedy is congruent and proportional to the constitutional wrong it targets.
- For copyrights as property interests, the relevant Fourteenth Amendment concern is deprivation of property without due process; a broad damages remedy covering all state infringement exceeds Section 5 power absent evidence of intentional/reckless infringements by States coupled with inadequate state-law remedies.

## Conclusion

*Allen v. Cooper* held that although CRCA plainly sought to subject States to federal copyright infringement suits, Congress lacked authority to abrogate state sovereign immunity under Article I, and CRCA’s across-the-board damages remedy was not a valid exercise of Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment given the limited legislative record of unconstitutional state infringement; accordingly, Allen’s federal damages claims against North Carolina were barred.


Allen v. Cooper, 140 S.Ct. 994 (2020)