Perlmutter v. Blanche

Case Overview

The Register of Copyrights serves under the Librarian of Congress, not the president — the statute that created the Copyright Office places its leadership in the legislative branch's orbit rather than the executive's. When Trump fired Register Shira Perlmutter in May 2025, he was not only challenging Humphrey's Executor's protection of independent agency heads; he was claiming executive removal power over an officer Congress had deliberately placed outside the presidential chain of command. The case raises a question that survives even if the Supreme Court overrules Humphrey's Executor in Trump v. Slaughter — whether the president can reach into a structure Congress designed to sit outside the executive chain of command and remove its leadership when the removing authority Congress named is a legislative-branch officer, not the president.