Senators Urge Trump to Undo ‘Unlawful’ Copyright Office Firing

Democratic senators lambasted President Donald Trump’s “unlawful and reckless” firing of the head of the US Copyright Office and urged him to reverse course to preserve the agency’s independence from political influence.

Trump fired Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter on May 10, two days after firing Carla Hayden, the head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the Copyright Office. Sens. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) also urged Trump to reinstate Hayden in the Wednesday letter. The law allows only the librarian to appoint and remove the register to “ensure that the Copyright Office remains an expert ...