The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the president to remove the government’s top copyright official after a lower court allowed her to remain in her post that is part of the Library of Congress.
President Trump ordered the removal in May of Shira Perlmutter, the register of copyrights, along with the librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, who did not challenge her dismissal.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has repeatedly allowed Mr. Trump to fire the leaders of independent agencies even as they fight their dismissals in court, allowing him to seize greater control of the federal bureaucracy.
The administration made the request after a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with Ms. Perlmutter, the head of the U.S. Copyright Office. The majority said the register is unique within the legislative branch and that her role is to advise Congress on issues related to copyright.
“The president’s purported removal of the legislative branch’s chief adviser on copyright matters, based on the advice that she provided to Congress, is akin to the president trying to fire a federal judge’s law clerk,” Judges Florence Pan and J. Michele Childs wrote in the order.
D. John Sauer, the solicitor general, said in his filing on Monday that the appeals court had improperly interfered with the president’s power to remove government officials, an argument the administration has successfully used in other dismissal cases.
The register, he wrote, wields significant regulatory authority over copyrights, “impacting a wide array of crucial intellectual-property rights.”
Ann Marimow covers the Supreme Court for The Times from Washington.
The post Trump Asks Supreme Court to Let Him Fire the Top Copyright Official appeared first on New York Times.
