Four justices step aside over book ties and halt music copyright appeal
Four US Supreme Court justices who publish books with Penguin Random House stood aside from a music copyright appeal, leaving the court without enough judges to decide it.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson recused themselves, meaning they took no part, in BMG Rights Management v. Vetter. The four recusals were recorded on 19 October 2026, and left the court without a quorum Publishers Lunch.
Four absences are enough to stop the court. Without a quorum, the minimum number of justices required to decide a case, the appeal cannot be heard under 28 U.S.C. §1 SCOTUSblog. The lower-court judgment is then affirmed, meaning left standing, under 28 U.S.C. §2109. That ended the appeal.
The dispute came from music labels BMG, Sony, Universal and Warner. They were challenging a ruling on copyright termination, the US rule that lets songwriters reclaim rights they once signed away after a set period Reuters. The Supreme Court's action leaves in place the January ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
All four of the recusing justices are Penguin Random House authors. The trade publication Publishers Lunch reported that the pattern suggests the court could at present be unable to review any case involving Bertelsmann or its subsidiaries.
The paper trail is precise. The Supreme Court filing, the official case record known as the docket, lists the matter as case No. 25-1391, BMG Rights Management (US) LLC, et al. v. Cyril E. Vetter, et al., docketed on 16 June 2026 U.S. Supreme Court docket. It is linked with application No. 25A1109, docketed on 8 April 2026. In the Fifth Circuit the dispute ran as Vetter v. Resnik, No. 25-30108, decided on 12 January 2026, when the appeals court affirmed the district court's judgment.
What makes this stand out is the chain from contract to courtroom. A publishing relationship limited which business disputes the nation's highest court could hear. For readers, the result is simple. The authors on the bench did not vote, and the music ruling below stands.
