SCOTUS won't take up copyright case against Ta-Nehisi Coates after five justices recuse themselves

The Supreme Court won't take up a copyright case against progressive author Ta-Nehisi Coates after five justices recused themselves, causing a lack of a quorum for the court to hear the case.

Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Sonia Sotomayor all recused themselves in the case of Ralph W. Baker, Jr. v. Ta-Nehisi Coates et al on Monday, Forbes reported. 

While the justices didn't provide reasons for their recusals, Barrett, Gorsuch, Jackson and Sotomayor all published books through Penguin Random House, whose parent company, Bertelsmann, is a named party in the case.

The reason for Alito's recusal is unclear, but judicial ethics watchdog Fix the Court has suggested that Alito may have "bought stock of late in one of the parties or in one of their parent companies (e.g., Apple, Amazon, Warner Bros.)." However, according to Alito's most recent financial disclosure this month, no new stock purchases are listed, the watchdog noted.

In the case, Baker claims that Coates plagiarized Baker's book, “Shock Exchange: How Inner-City Kids From Brooklyn Predicted the Great Recession and the Pain Ahead,” in Coates' book, “The Water Dancer.”

The lower court's ruling in the case, which was against Baker, will stand.