In the case of Allen v. Cooper, 2019, documentary filmmaker Frederick Allen and his production company Nautilus Productions sued North Carolina's Governor Roy Cooper for copyright infringement. The state had published videos and a photograph that Allen took of the wreckage of Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard's flagship without permission or payment. However, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of North Carolina based on sovereign immunity principles under the U.S Copyright Act. Sovereign immunity protects states from certain lawsuits unless they consent to be sued or Congress has legitimately abrogated their immunity. In this case, it was determined that Congress did not have authority to remove North Carolina's sovereign immunity via legislation known as the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (CRCA). Therefore, despite acknowledging copyright infringement by North Carolina occurred; due to constitutional limitations regarding congressional power over states' rights - specifically related to intellectual property disputes - no legal recourse could be provided for Mr.Allen.

In the dissenting opinion for Allen v. Cooper, Justice Thomas argued that Congress lacked authority to revoke states' sovereign immunity from copyright infringement lawsuits via the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (CRCA). He contended that while Article I of the Constitution gives Congress power to create copyrights, it does not explicitly grant them power to protect these rights by abrogating state sovereign immunity. Furthermore, he disagreed with the majority's reliance on Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Ed. Expense Bd. v. College Savings Bank as precedent because he believed this case was wrongly decided and should be overruled instead of followed blindly in future cases like Allen v Cooper.