The Supreme Court said Wednesday it would defer a decision about whether President Donald Trump can fire the nation’s top copyright official until after it handles a pair of other cases weighing the legality of Trump’s removal of high-ranking bureaucrats.
The Trump administration had asked the justices to clear the way for the president to remove Shira Perlmutter from her job as the register of copyrights and the head of the U.S. Copyright Office. In September, an appeals court ruled she could remain on the job while her lawsuit challenging her dismissal plays out.
Trump fired Perlmutter in May. She sued, claiming the president did not have the authority to dismiss her because she was a legislative officer, not an executive one. The copyright office is part of the Library of Congress, the research agency for the House and Senate.
The justices said they would wait to decide her case until they hear one dealing with Trump’s firing of a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission and another over his attempts to remove a Democratic member of the Federal Reserve. The FTC case will be heard in December and the Federal Reserve one in January.
Trump fired both officials without giving a reason, despite laws saying they could only be removed for cause. The cases are a major test of whether the president has unfettered authority to remove the heads of independent agencies.
The register creates rules for obtaining copyrights and advises Congress on intellectual property matters. The register is appointed by the librarian of Congress.
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