Supreme Court Lets Copyright Office Head Stay in Job for Now (1)

The US Supreme Court declined for now to let President Donald Trump’s administration oust the director of the US Copyright Office, deferring a decision in the legal fight until at least January.

The justices said Wednesday they won’t act on Trump’s bid to remove Shira Perlmutter until they consider two other clashes involving presidential firings, including the case of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the Cook case Jan. 21.

Justice Clarence Thomas said he would have granted the administration’s request to remove Perlmutter while that legal fight goes forward.

The Supreme Court in other contexts has let Trump at least temporarily oust top officials at regulatory agencies that Congress set up to be independent from the White House. The justices next month will use a case about the Federal Trade Commission to consider overturning the 1935 ruling that let Congress shield agency leaders from being fired in the absence of wrongdoing.

Perlmutter’s job status has been in limbo since May 10, when she got a letter from a White House official saying she was fired effective immediately. A day earlier, she had issued a draft report questioning the use of copyrighted materials to train generative artificial intelligence models. She has remained in the position since then amid a back-and-forth court battle.

The Copyright Office examines applications for copyrights, handles their registration and records ownership transfers. The director also advises Congress on national and international copyright matters.

The legal fight is unique because of the office’s unusual placement in the federal government structure, within the Library of Congress. The two sides dispute whether the office and library are part of the executive branch or the legislative branch.

Firing Authority

Perlmutter’s status was further complicated by the circumstances of her attempted ouster. Trump had just fired Perlmutter’s boss, Carla Hayden, from her role as librarian of Congress and named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to serve as librarian in an acting capacity.

Perlmutter contends that only the librarian can fire her – and that Trump lacked authority to appoint Blanche to the role because the library isn’t an executive agency.

The Trump administration told the Supreme Court that the library qualifies as an executive agency under the 1998 Federal Vacancies Reform Act. The administration also argues that Trump has constitutional authority to fire anyone who wields executive power on his behalf.

Blanche hasn’t yet assumed control over the Library of Congress despite Trump’s appointment. In May, two other Justice Department officials went to the library to announce the changes and begin taking charge, but they left after staff members contacted the Capitol Police. The officials included Paul Perkins, whom Blanche has tapped to be acting director of the copyright office.

The case is Blanche v. Perlmutter, 25a478.

(Updates with description of legal fight starting in fourth paragraph.)

To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Elizabeth Wasserman at ewasserman2@bloomberg.net

Steve Stroth

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