...Justia.com is authorized – according to the federal Public Domain laws – to re-publish US Supreme Court opinions.....
What cases are annotated under 10 USC 1018?
http://naturalborncitizen.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/
Just because something is in the public domain does not mean that anyone who publishes it is "authorized by any law of the United States to make or give a certificate or other writing." Your reading of 18 U.S.C. 1018 (apologies for misquoting the citation - the mistake was in Donofrio's original) would mean that anyone who falsely quoted any document in the public domain would be in violation of Federal law. That is simply not the case. By it's very title, 18 U.S.C. 1018 is intended to cover "Official certificates or writings" - a private entity re-publishing public domain writings, including Supreme Court decisions, is not making "official certificates or writings."