Historic statements of fact?

In an earlier post on IPBiz, Duke Law School professor Erwin Chemerinsky's quote about the Kennedy Era of the Supreme Court was noted.

In the matter of Laurence Tribe's use of words of University of Virginia law professor Henry Abraham, Duke University law professor Erwin Chemerinsky had said it wasn't plagiarism because the passages Tribe used inappropriately were historic statements of fact, rather than another author's ideas. [Kevin Rothstein, Boston Herald, 28 Sept 04].

Steve Bloomfield and Andrew Gumbel discussed on May 7, 2006 the plagiarism of Harvard undergrad Kaavya Viswanathan:

It is a story about just what happens when immature ambition and
marketing greed hijacks a process that should have more to do with
creativity than opportunism.

(...)

At first, Little, Brown tried to contain the scandal, saying it
would withdraw the book, make revisions, and put it back on sale. But as the
sheer scale of the alleged plagiarism became apparent, Little, Brown decided
it might be simpler to throw in the towel, which it duly did in the middle of
last week.