Trump asks Supreme Court to let him fire a top Library of Congress official

By John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow him to fire a top official at the Library of Congress, despite a lower court ruling that found the official is part the legislative branch and doesn’t report to the White House.

Trump’s dismissal of Shira Perlmutter, director of the US Copyright Office, followed a report she released in May that suggested some copyrighted works used to train generative AI models would likely require licensing – that is, tech companies would have to pay to use that material.

Perlmutter’s lawsuit said President Donald Trump “allegedly disagreed” with that report.

In one sense, the case is the latest in a series of emergency appeals Trump has brought to the Supreme Court as part of his push to remove critics from independent agencies. But the Perlmutter litigation adds a new twist, given lower court findings that she reports to Congress.

In a 2-1 decision earlier this year, a panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals said that the register of copyrights is part of the legislative branch, meaning that only a Senate-confirmed Librarian of Congress can remove her, 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,” US Circuit Judge Florence Pan wrote.

Pan and another judge who sided with Perlmutter were appointed by President Joe Biden. A third judge, who was nominated by Trump, dissented.

The Trump administration told the high court in its appeal Monday that the DC Circuit’s reading “contravenes settled precedent and misconceives the Librarian’s and Register’s legal status.”

“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,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court in the emergency filing.

Trump installed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, one of his former private attorneys, as the acting Librarian of Congress in May – the position above the register – then appointed another Justice Department official, Paul Perkins, to replace Perlmutter. Blanche and Perkins were turned away from their offices in May amid an unresolved dispute over the library’s leadership.

The title of Perlmutter’s lawsuit names Blanche as a “person claiming to be acting Librarian of Congress.”

Robert Newlen is listed as the acting Librarian of Congress on the library’s website. Newlen addressed an audience with that title at the library’s book festival in September, minutes before Justice Amy Coney Barrett appeared on stage to promote her new memoir.

US Circuit Judge Justin Walker, who said he would have sided with Trump in the dispute over Perlmutter, noted that 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. “We must apply those precedents,” even if the case continues and Perlmutter argues there is a violation of the separation of powers.

The court asked for a response from Perlmutter by November 10.

CNN’s Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.

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