The first copyright case to reach the Court involving fair use after the Copyright Act of 1976 codified it into law. The Court thus provided guidance in how to apply the four-factor test for fair use. Decided May 20, 1985 (argued November 6, 1984). Opinion of the Court: Sandra Day O'Connor → go there Dissenting: Brennan. Applied: the First Amendment → go there Topic: Copyright/Patents. Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539 (1985), was a United States Supreme Court decision in which public interest in learning about a historical figure's impressions of a historic event was held not to be sufficient to show fair use of material otherwise protected by copyright. Defendant, The Nation, had summarized and quoted substantially from A Time to Heal, President Gerald Ford's forthcoming memoir of his decision to pardon former president Richard Nixon. When Harper & Row, who held the rights to A Time to Heal, brought suit, The Nation asserted that its use of the book was protected under the doctrine of fair use, because of the great public interest in a historical figure's account of a historic incident. The Court rejected this argument holding that the right of first publication was important enough to find in favor of Harper. Wiki link