WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supreme Court on Jan. 21 denied the Trump administration's request for emergency relief to remove Shira Perlmutter from her position as register of copyrights. The decision leaves intact a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling that had restored Perlmutter to her role.

The Supreme Court issued an unsigned order stating that its denial of emergency relief "is not a ruling on the merits of the legal issues presented in the litigation." President Trump moved to fire Perlmutter earlier this year. Perlmutter serves as the register of copyrights and director of the U.S. Copyright Office.

Perlmutter was fired the day after she released a report to Congress concerning artificial intelligence and copyright. In May 2024, President Trump removed Carla Hayden from her post as librarian of Congress. Trump then directed Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, to serve as acting librarian of Congress and instructed him to remove Perlmutter from her position.

Hayden was appointed librarian of Congress in 2016 and had appointed Perlmutter as register of copyrights in 2020. A U.S. district court had previously declined to allow Perlmutter to remain in her post during her lawsuit, but a divided panel of the appeals court later restored her to her job.

U.S. Circuit Judge Florence Pan, joined by Judge Michelle Childs, wrote in a concurring opinion that "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." Pan stated that under federal law, only a librarian of Congress confirmed by the Senate has the authority to remove the register of copyrights. She found that Blanche's purported appointment as acting librarian of Congress was likely unlawful because any librarian appointee must be confirmed by the Senate.

Pan wrote that the register of copyrights' primary responsibility is to advise Congress on copyright law. She stated, "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 added that the President's purported removal of the Legislative Branch's chief advisor on copyright matters, based on the advice she provided to Congress, "is akin to the President trying to fire a federal judge's law clerk."

The Trump administration argued that both the librarian of Congress and the register of copyrights fall within the executive branch and exercise executive powers. Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in a filing that "Treating the Librarian and Register as legislative officers would set much of federal copyright law on a collision course with the basic principle that Congress may not vest the power to execute the laws in itself or its officers."

Perlmutter's lawyers argued that Blanche was not properly serving as acting librarian of Congress when he moved to remove Perlmutter. They also contended that Congress has repeatedly defined the Library of Congress as part of the legislative branch, not the executive. Perlmutter's lawyers wrote, "Administrative officials 'insist that courts are powerless to do anything about the President's attempt to seize control of the Library of Congress, even if a court correctly concludes that the President's actions are in reckless disregard of the law.'" They added, "Under this theory, the President's lawless misconduct would be rewarded — creating an unchecked power that is antithetical to the Constitution's design."