Removing the Register of Copyrights the day after her office's AI report

Perlmutter remains Register of Copyrights while the litigation proceeds. The Supreme Court had deferred acting on the government's application until after it decided Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook; Justice Thomas would have granted the stay. The Copyright Office's continued leadership bears on whether the final version of its report on generative AI training is published.

The Register of Copyrights heads the Copyright Office, which sits inside the Library of Congress in the legislative branch. By statute the Register is appointed by the Librarian of Congress, and her duties include conducting studies and advising Congress on copyright. Carla Hayden appointed Perlmutter in October 2020. On May 8, 2025 the President removed Hayden as Librarian and, invoking the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, designated Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as Acting Librarian. On May 9 the Copyright Office released a pre-publication version of the third part of its report on copyright and artificial intelligence, addressing the use of copyrighted works to train generative models. On May 10 the President directed Perlmutter's removal; she was notified by email from the White House Presidential Personnel Office that she was fired effective immediately, and Blanche appointed an Associate Deputy Attorney General as Acting Register.

Perlmutter sued, arguing that only the Librarian may remove the Register and that Blanche was not lawfully serving as Acting Librarian. Judge Timothy Kelly denied a preliminary injunction without reaching the merits, holding she had not shown irreparable harm. On September 10, 2025 a divided D.C. Circuit panel reversed and ordered her reinstated pending appeal. Judge Florence Pan, joined by Judge J. Michelle Childs, wrote that the removal was an attempt to reach into the legislative branch to fire an official the President has no statutory authority to appoint or remove, and compared it to firing a federal judge's law clerk. The concurrence said the removal would be a grave intrusion into the constitutional powers of a coordinate branch. The full court of appeals left the order in place.

The government sought a stay from the Supreme Court, arguing that the Vacancies Act authorized Blanche's designation and that Article II permitted the President to remove Perlmutter directly because her office exercises executive power. In November 2025 the Court deferred, saying it would await its decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook; Justice Thomas would have granted the stay. On June 30, 2026, the day after those decisions issued, the Court denied the application in an unsigned order that expressly stated it was not a ruling on the merits. No court has found that the removal was retaliation for the AI report; that inference rests on the timing and on her lawyers' account. What the courts have held, so far and only preliminarily, is that the President lacked statutory authority to remove her. The merits remain open, and the district court has ordered supplemental briefing in light of Trump v. Slaughter. The Federal Reserve governor whose removal the Supreme Court also declined to allow is documented at WLE-09.

Documented; a D.C. Circuit order and concurrence, the government's Supreme Court application, and the Supreme Court's order

The district court denied a preliminary injunction on irreparable-harm grounds alone (D.D.C., Judge Timothy Kelly, July 30, 2025). The D.C. Circuit reversed 2-1 on September 10, 2025 and reinstated her; the full court left that in place. The Supreme Court denied the government's stay application on June 30, 2026 in an unsigned order stating it was not a ruling on the merits. The removal-power question remains undecided, and the district court ordered supplemental briefing in light of Trump v. Slaughter

Librarian of Congress removed 2025-05-08; AI report released 2025-05-09; removal directed 2025-05-10; D.C. Circuit reinstatement 2025-09-10; Supreme Court denial 2026-06-30