Key facts
- The Supreme Court denied a request to allow Donald Trump to remove Shira Perlmutter as the U.S. Register of Copyrights.
- The court's action is a temporary measure and not a ruling on the merits of the case.
- Perlmutter's removal was reportedly linked to a report from her office finding that some unauthorized uses of copyrighted works for AI training may be unlawful.
- Perlmutter argued that Trump lacked the authority to appoint the acting Librarian of Congress, who then ratified her firing.
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had previously reinstated Perlmutter during her legal challenge.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to allow Donald Trump to remove Shira Perlmutter, the government's top copyright official, while her legal challenge against termination proceeds. The Justice Department had requested the Supreme Court lift a lower court's ruling that blocked Perlmutter's firing.
Perlmutter was notified of her termination in May 2025 by a Trump administration official. Her lawyers contend that Trump sought her removal due to her office's report finding that some unauthorized uses of copyrighted works by tech firms for AI training may be unlawful. Trump later fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and moved to replace her with Todd Blanche, his former criminal defense attorney and current acting U.S. attorney general. Blanche, in his capacity as acting head of the Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office, then purported to ratify Trump's decision to remove Perlmutter.
Perlmutter sued, arguing that Trump lacked the authority to appoint Blanche as acting Librarian of Congress because the office is part of the legislative branch, not the executive branch. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly initially rejected her request for a preliminary injunction, but a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit later reinstated her. Judge Florence Pan, writing for the majority, stated that Trump's action was an attempt to reach into the legislative branch to fire an official he had no statutory authority to remove.
The Supreme Court's denial is not a ruling on the merits of the underlying legal issue. The court had previously postponed a decision on the matter, waiting for rulings in related cases concerning Trump's ability to fire other federal officials.