Appeals court rules Trump doesn’t have the authority to fire Copyright Office director
September 10, 2025
A divided appeals court has ruled President Donald Trump doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally remove and replace the director of the U.S. Copyright Office. A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 2-1 on Wednesday to temporarily block Trump’s Republican administration from firing Shira Perlmutter as the register of copyrights. Perlmutter claims Trump fired her in May because he disapproved of advice she gave Congress in a report related to artificial intelligence. Circuit Judges Florence Pan and J. Michelle Childs concluded Perlmutter’s purported firing was likely illegal. Perlmutter was appointed in 2020 by then-Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, whom Trump replaced this year.