Judge Smacks Down Bureaucrat Who Claimed Trump Can’t Fire Her
A federal bureaucrat went to court to insist that, because President Donald Trump cannot fire her, the Trump administration should be halted from doing so.
However, Shira Perlmutter, former director of the U.S. Copyright Office, lost a round in court on Wednesday after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said she failed to show irreparable harm from being fired, according to the Associated Press.
Kelly did not decide the merits of Perlmutter’s suit. He only rejected her demand for a temporary restraining order that would have let her keep her job while the legal wrangling goes on.
Perlmutter has been Register of Copyrights since October 2020. Trump has appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as Librarian of Congress, to replace Carla Hayden, who appointed Perlmutter.
The U.S. Copyright Office operates within the Library of Congress. The Librarian of Congress, who works for the legislative branch but is a presidential appointment subject to Senate confirmation, chooses its director.
The lawsuit is aimed at Blanche as well as the wider Trump administration, according to Politico.
Justice Department lawyers said in a court filing that Perlmutter is wrongly claiming she is an exception to the rules.
“The Constitution creates three branches of Government. There is Congress, the Executive, and the Judiciary. There is no fourth constitutional category reserved for an indeterminate-and-multiplying number of autonomous federal organizations. That simple principle suffices to deny Plaintiff’s motion,” the filing said.
The filing said Trump acted in an orderly manner.
“The President of the United States removed Carla Hayden from her position as Librarian of Congress and designated the Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, as acting Librarian,” the filing said.