Trump Seeks Full Court Rehearing on Copyright Chief Perlmutter; Bloomberg Law, September 18, 2025

Kyle Jahner

, Bloomberg Law; Trump Seeks Full Court Rehearing on Copyright Chief Perlmutter

"The Trump Administration asked the full D.C. Circuit to rehear a successful bid by Shira Perlmutter to be temporarily restored as the head of the US Copyright Office."

Appeals court, weighing Trump’s Library of Congress takeover, reinstates copyright chief; Politico, September 9, 2025

 JOSH GERSTEIN, Politico ; Appeals court, weighing Trump’s Library of Congress takeover, reinstates copyright chief

"A federal appeals court ruled the nation’s top copyright official can continue serving in her post following President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire her.

A divided three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesdaythat Shira Perlmutter is entitled to continue to serve as the register of copyrights at the Library of Congress, despite the White House’s claim that Trump fired her from the post in May.

While the Supreme Court and the D.C. Circuit have permitted Trump to fire a range of executive branch officials who claimed they were protected from dismissal, judges Florence Pan and J. Michelle Childs concluded that Perlmutter’s case was stronger because she doesn’t exercise significant executive power in her job.

“Because Perlmutter leads an agency that is housed in the Legislative Branch and her primary role is to advise Congress, Perlmutter’s situation differs significantly from the Executive Branch officials whose removals have been repeatedly upheld,” Pan wrote, joined by Childs. Both are appointees of former President Joe Biden.

Perlmutter was dismissed days after Trump moved to fire Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who has not sought to challenge her ouster in court. The president’s move onto what has traditionally been legislative branch turf has vexed Democrats and some congressional Republicans.

Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, dissented. He said Perlmutter’s claims were too similar to cases the Supreme Court ruled on earlier this year where the justices upheld, for now, Trump’s power to fire members of labor-related boards and the Consumer Product Safety Commission."

Congress’s Knowledge at Risk: The Constitutional Stakes in the Perlmutter Case; The National Law Review, August 18, 2025

 Jim W. Ko of The Sedona Conference, The National Law Review; Congress’s Knowledge at Risk: The Constitutional Stakes in the Perlmutter Case

"Do all federal employees “serve at the pleasure of the President”? That question, usually tucked away in the margins of constitutional law, now sits at the center of one of the most consequential disputes of our time.

When President Trump fired Shira Perlmutter, the Director of the U.S. Copyright Office (formally the Register of Copyrights),1 the move appeared—at first glance—to be the straightforward exercise of presidential authority. After all, presidents hire and fire their own officers; the Librarian of Congress is a presidential appointee; and the Copyright Office sits within the Library.

But a closer look reveals that this case is not about ordinary personnel management. It is about whether the President can extend his reach into Congress’s own library, and in so doing, compromise both the constitutional separation of powers and the First Amendment’s guarantee against viewpoint discrimination."

Trump, Ex-Copyright Chief Trade Barbs Over Copyright Termination; Bloomberg Law, August 15, 2025

 Annelise Levy, Kartikay Mehrotra, Bloomberg Law; Trump, Ex-Copyright Chief Trade Barbs Over Copyright Termination

"The Justice Department urged a federal appeals court to reject former Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter’s bid to regain her position, arguing that President Donald Trump lawfully removed her under his constitutional authority. 

The brief filed Friday in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit echoed the government’s arguments throughout this case which contend that the Library of Congress qualifies as an executive branch agency subject to Trump’s removal power."

Trump’s Ex-Copyright Chief Loses Bid to Regain Her Old Job; Bloomberg Law, July 30, 2025

Quinn Wilson, Bloomberg Law; Trump’s Ex-Copyright Chief Loses Bid to Regain Her Old Job

"Former Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter couldn’t convince a district court to reinstate her to her post.

Perlmutter failed to show Timothy J. Kelly that she or Library of Congress or the Copyright Office faces irreparable harm as a result of her firing, according to a memorandum opinion issued Wednesday. Kelly denied her motion for a preliminary injunction in the US District Court for the District of Columbia."

No One Is in Charge at the US Copyright Office; Wired, June 27, 2025

KATE KNIBBS , Wired; 

No One Is in Charge at the US Copyright Office

"It’s a tumultuous time for copyright in the United States, with dozens of potentially economy-shaking AI copyright lawsuits winding through the courts. It’s also the most turbulent moment in the US Copyright Office’s history. Described as “sleepy” in the past, the Copyright Office has taken on new prominence during the AI boom, issuing key rulings about AI and copyright. It also hasn’t had a leader in more than a month...

As the legality of the ouster is debated, the reality within the office is this: There’s effectively nobody in charge. And without a leader actually showing up at work, the Copyright Office is not totally business-as-usual; in fact, there’s debate over whether the copyright certificates it’s issuing could be challenged."

Fired copyright chief loses first round in lawsuit over Trump powers; Politico, May 28, 2025

 KATHERINE TULLY-MCMANUS, Politico ; Fired copyright chief loses first round in lawsuit over Trump powers

"A judge denied a request for reinstatement Wednesday from the ousted head of the national copyright office, rejecting for now her claims that President Donald Trump had no right to fire her."

Trump Defends Firing Copyright Chief, Cites Presidential Power; Bloomberg Law, May 26, 2025

Kartikay Mehrotra

 , Bloomberg Law; Trump Defends Firing Copyright Chief, Cites Presidential Power

"The Trump administration fired back Monday against ousted Copyright Office chief Shira Perlmutter’s lawsuit, arguing her emergency request for reinstatement should be denied because the president has sweeping authority to remove her."

Complaint: Perlmutter v. Blanche; Courthouse News, May 22, 2025

 Courthouse News; Complaint: Perlmutter v. Blanche

Elon Musk’s apparent power play at the Copyright Office completely backfired; The Verge, May 14, 2025

Tina Nguyen , The Verge; Elon Musk’s apparent power play at the Copyright Office completely backfiredi

US Copyright Office director sues Trump administration over firing; Reuters, May 22, 2025

 Blake Brittain, Reuters; US Copyright Office director sues Trump administration over firing

"The U.S. Copyright Office director fired by the Trump administration sued President Donald Trump and other government officials on Thursday, arguing her firing was unconstitutional and should not be allowed to take effect.

Shira Perlmutter said in the lawsuit that her termination by email on May 10 was "blatantly unlawful," and that only the U.S. Congress can remove her from office."

Trump strikes a blow for AI – by firing the US copyright supremo; The Guardian, May 13, 2025

 Blake Montgomery , The Guardian; Trump strikes a blow for AI – by firing the US copyright supremo

"Over the weekend, Donald Trump fired the head of the US copyright office, CBS News reported. Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, was sacked after she issued a report questioning AI companies’ growing need for more data and casting doubt on their expressed need to circumvent current copyright laws.

In a statement, New York Democratic representative Joe Morelle pointed specifically to Trump’s booster-in-chief Elon Musk as a motivator for Perlmutter’s firing: “Donald Trump’s termination of register of copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis. It is surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk’s efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models.”

Trump’s abrupt severing of the copyright chief from her job reminds me of the Gordian knot. Legend has it that Alexander the Great was presented with a knot in a rope tying a cart to a stake. So complex were its twistings that no man had been able to untie it of the hundreds who had tried. Alexander silently drew his sword and sliced the knot in two. The story is one of a great man demonstrating the ingenuity that would lead him to conquer the world. Alexander did solve the riddle. He also defeated its purpose. The cart is left with no anchor. Perhaps the riddle had taken on more significance than the original problem of keeping the cart in place, but that is a question for another day.

Trump may have cut through any thorny legal questions the copyright office had raised, but the vacuum at the head of the US’s copyright authority means that richer and better-connected players will run roughshod over copyright law in the course of their business. That may be what the president wants. The more powerful players in lawsuits over AI and copyright are undoubtedly the well capitalized AI companies, as much as I want artists to be paid in abundance for their creativity. These tech companies have cozied up to Trump in an effort to ensure a friendlier regulatory environment, which seems to be working if the firing of the copyright chief is any evidence. Lawsuits over how much AI companies owe artists and publishers for their surreptitious use of copyrighted material with an avowed lack of permission still abound, and both plaintiffs and defendants will be taking their cues from the US copyright office."

US Copyright Office found AI companies sometimes breach copyright. Next day its boss was fired; The Register, May 12, 2025

Simon Sherwood, The Register; US Copyright Office found AI companies sometimes breach copyright. Next day its boss was fired

"The head of the US Copyright Office has reportedly been fired, the day after agency concluded that builders of AI models use of copyrighted material went beyond existing doctrines of fair use.

The office’s opinion on fair use came in a draft of the third part of its report on copyright and artificial intelligence. The first part considered digital replicas and the second tackled whether it is possible to copyright the output of generative AI.

The office published the draft [PDF] of Part 3, which addresses the use of copyrighted works in the development of generative AI systems, on May 9th.

The draft notes that generative AI systems “draw on massive troves of data, including copyrighted works” and asks: “Do any of the acts involved require the copyright owners’ consent or compensation?”"