A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday rejected U.S. Copyright Office Director Shira Perlmutter's emergency bid to block the Trump administration from firing her.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled during a hearing that Perlmutter had not shown she would be irreparably harmed if not immediately reinstated as the case continues.
Kelly said Perlmutter's loss of her job was not significant enough to grant her emergency request. He said recent rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit "gave a side-eye" to the idea that the harm of her firing would justify a restraining order against the administration.
Attorneys for Perlmutter did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. A spokesperson for the Copyright Office declined to comment.
The administration had terminated Perlmutter from her position by email on May 10, which she called "blatantly unlawful" in a lawsuit filed on May 22.
The Copyright Office, a department of the Library of Congress, confirmed on May 12 that the administration had fired Perlmutter. Her removal sparked a backlash from Democratic politicians, who said that Congress had "purposely insulated" the Copyright Office from politics.
The administration, in a court filing responding to the lawsuit, said the Library of Congress is "not an autonomous organization free from political supervision," but did not give a specific reason for Perlmutter's firing.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement that the president "reserves the right to remove employees within his own Executive Branch who exert his executive authority."
The administration also fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on May 9, citing her advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Perlmutter's firing came one day after the Copyright Office released a report on the intersection of artificial intelligence and copyright law. The office said in the report that technology companies' use of copyrighted works to train AI may not always be protected under U.S. law.
