WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 -- Cyril Vetter and his co-writer sold "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)" to a publisher for one dollar in 1963. On Monday the Supreme Court said it lacked a quorum to hear the major music companies' bid to undo a ruling that makes Vetter and his company the song's owners worldwide.

Four justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson, took no part, and the order does not say why. Federal law requires six justices for a quorum. The remaining justices were of the opinion that the case "cannot be heard and determined at the next Term," so the Court affirmed the judgment of the Fifth Circuit under 28 U.S.C. *2109, which gives that result "the same effect as upon affirmance by an equall...