Court Asked to Allow Firing of Copyright Chief

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow President Trump to remove Shira Perlmutter as Register of Copyrights after he fired her in May, shortly after removing Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. A divided D.C. Circuit panel blocked the termination and reinstated Perlmutter, finding the register is unique because she advises Congress, and the full court recently declined rehearing. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices the Library of Congress is an executive agency and that the register performs executive functions — including rulemaking, adjudication and international copyright negotiations — so the president must have removal authority. Perlmutter says she was ousted after producing a report questioning whether copyrighted works can lawfully be used to train artificial‑intelligence models; the administration argues keeping her would undermine its intellectual‑property and executive‑branch control. The dispute is the latest high‑profile test of presidential removal power, and the Supreme Court has given Perlmutter until Nov. 10 to file a response.