Supreme Court says nation's top copyright official can keep job for now

Washington — The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it won't allow President Trump to remove the nation's top copyright official for now, leaving intact an order from a federal appeals court that restored her to the role.

The high court's decision is a rare loss for the Trump administration in its efforts to fire officials appointed by Democrats. It comes on the heels of a ruling from the conservative wing of the bench finding that removal restrictions for members of the Federal Trade Commission were unconstitutional, a decision that expands presidential power over so-called independent agencies.

But in a separate ruling involving Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the Supreme Court rejected the president's efforts to fire her while a challenge to her firing moves forward.

The copyright dispute involves Mr. Trump's move earlier this year to fire Shira Perlmutter, the register of copyrights. In a brief unsigned order, the high court specified that its denial of the Trump administration's request for emergency relief "is not a ruling on the merits of the legal issues presented in the litigation."

As register of copyrights, Perlmutter served as the director of the U.S. Copyright Office, working under the librarian of Congress. She was fired a day after releasing to Congress a report on artificial intelligence and copyright.

The president had first removed Carla Hayden from her post as librarian of Congress last year and then directed her temporary replacement to oust Perlmutter. Hayden did not challenge her termination, but Perlmutter did, arguing that because the librarian of Congress and register of copyrights are legislative officers, the president lacked the power to name an acting librarian, who in turn had no authority to remove her.

Hayden was appointed librarian of Congress in 2016, and in 2020, she tapped Perlmutter as register of copyrights.

A U.S. district court declined to let Perlmutter remain in her post while her lawsuit played out, but a divided panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit restored her to the job.

"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," Judge Florence Pan, joined by Judge Michelle Childs, wrote in a concurring opinion.

The register of copyrights' primary responsibility is to advise Congres