House Judiciary Democrats file amicus brief urging court to reject DOJ's national-security fair-use argument in OpenAI case

On 30 October 2026, House Judiciary Committee Democrats Jamie Raskin, Jerrold Nadler and Hank Johnson submitted an amicus brief in In re OpenAI, Inc. Copyright Infringement Litigation in the Southern District of New York, opposing the Department of Justice's position on fair use for AI training.

The lawmakers argue the DOJ is inviting the court to ignore federal statutes and grant AI companies a blanket exemption from copyright law, based on a national-security rationale: the DOJ intervened on 1 September 2026 to support the AI companies, arguing that restricting use of copyrighted texts would threaten American AI development and national security. The brief's central line, quoted in the lawmakers' announcement: 'National security is not a fair use factor under the Copyright Act.'

The underlying dispute stems from allegations that OpenAI and Microsoft used New York Times journalism without permission to build AI products competing with the newspaper.

What this does not establish: the brief is advocacy by three lawmakers, not a court ruling, and the court has not decided the fair-use question or whether to accept any particular amicus brief. Note on dating: the lawmakers' announcement page carries a placeholder date ('October XX, 2026'); the 30 October date is corroborated by MLex's 30 October 2026 summary of the filing.