A federal appeals court on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from replacing the US’ top copyright official as the fight over executive branch firings and President Donald Trump’s use of executive power continues.
Shira Perlmutter, who had been the register of copyrights since the Librarian of Congress appointed her in 2020, was fired by Trump in May after she prepared a report for Congress on the usage of artificial intelligence that Trump allegedly disagreed with, she says in her lawsuit.
In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the register of copyrights is part of the legislative branch, making her only able to be fired by a Senate-confirmed Librarian of Congress, and not the president.
“The Executive’s alleged blatant interference with the work of a Legislative Branch official, as she performs statutorily authorized duties to advise Congress, strikes us as a violation of the separation of powers that is significantly different in kind and in degree from the cases that have come before,” the DC Circuit Judge Florence Pan wrote.
Trump installed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, one of his former private attorneys, as the acting Librarian of Congress – the position above the register’s – then appointed another Justice Department official, Paul Perkins, in Perlmutter’s place.
The court also said Blanche’s appointment as acting Librarian of Congress is also likely unlawful, because he has not been confirmed by the Senate.
The case is among a handful this year testing the presidency’s power over appointees working with the legislative branch of government or in independent agencies. The Supreme Court has repeatedly allowed Trump to remove officials from their posts for now, though the lower courts have delivered mixed decisions, often based on party-line splits among panels of judges and close readings about the law at play in the cases and the separation of powers.
“The President’s attempt to reach into the Legislative Branch to fire an official that he has no statutory authority to either appoint or remove, and to impede Congress’s ability to carry out an enumerated constitutional duty, presents a ‘genuinely extraordinary situation,’ that threatens irreparable harm to the constitutional structure of our government,” Pan also wrote. “The President’s purported removal of the Legislative Branch’s chief advisor on copyright matters, based on the advice that she provided to Congress, is akin to the President trying to fire a federal judge’s law clerk.”
Perlmutter sued for her job, and now two of three judges on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals say she should keep her position for now. Judge Michelle Childs, also appointed by a Democratic president, was also in the majority.
Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, dissented.
Walker pointed to how the Supreme Court has “recently, repeatedly, and unequivocally” stopped courts from stepping in when Trump has fired officials.
“I do not doubt that my colleagues are attempting in good faith to interpret and apply” Supreme Court precedent, Walker wrote in a short dissent. “We must apply those precedents,” even if the case continues and Perlmutter argues there is a violation of the separation of powers.
