A federal appeals court panel reinstated Shira Perlmutter as the register of copyrights on Wednesday as she fights a legal battle over her firing from the position by President Donald Trump in May.

The 2-1 ruling by the panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that Perlmutter was unlawfully fired because she was exercising functions of the legislative branch, rather than the executive branch, ruling that Trump had no ability to fire her. The majority on the panel claimed that it was obeying the Supreme Court’s May order in Trump v. Wilcox, which found the president “may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf,” arguing that Perlmutter is not exercising power on the president’s behalf.

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“The Executive’s alleged blatant interference with the work of a Legislative Branch official, as she performs statutorily authorized duties to advise Congress, strikes us as a violation of the separation of powers that is significantly different in kind and in degree from the cases that have come before,” U.S. Circuit Judge Florence Pan said in the concurring statement.

“This case is also distinguishable from Wilcox because of the diminished amount of executive power that is at stake: The Register likely does not exercise substantial executive power because the position is housed within the Legislative Branch; its primary responsibility is advising Congress on matters of copyright law; and the President has no statutory removal authority over the Register at all,” Pan continued. “And finally, it is significant that Perlmutter’s removal was likely unlawful because the President has no direct authority to fire her, and his installment of an Acting Librarian of Congress was likely ineffective.”

Pan’s concurring statement was joined by Judge J. Michelle Childs. Both are appointees of former President Joe Biden.

The lone dissent came from Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, who argued that the register of copyrights does not exercise legislative powers, but rather executive powers, and that Perlmutter should not be reinstated, as the lower district court had ruled.

“The Register of Copyrights exercises ‘executive’ power,” Walker wrote. “And ‘the Government faces greater risk of harm from an order allowing a removed officer to continue exercising the executive power than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable to perform her statutory duty.’

“So the district court did not permit the Register of Copyrights to remain in her post while she challenges the legality of her removal, and neither should we.”

The appeals court’s ruling marks the latest instance of an independent agency head who has been fired by Trump but reinstated by a federal court. The first two legal battles on the topic, which ended up on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket, have resulted in wins for the Trump administration, with the high court allowing the firings in the interim.

Despite the Supreme Court handing Trump those interim wins, some lower courts have continued to block firings, citing the high court’s 1935 precedent in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. The Humphrey’s Executor ruling found that a Federal Trade Commission commissioner may only be fired by the president “for cause,” as outlined in the law Congress passed authorizing the creation of the FTC.

SUPREME COURT WILL HEAR TRUMP ‘LIBERATION DAY’ TARIFF CASE IN NOVEMBER

The Supreme Court has been asked again to allow Trump to fire another independent agency head, a Democrat-appointed FTC commissioner, after a lower court ordered the commissioner’s reinstatement. The high court has been asked to consider taking the legal challenge before it has fully made its way through the lower courts.

On Monday, Chief Justice John Roberts granted an administrative stay in the case, allowing for the firing of the FTC commissioner at the center of the legal dispute while the high court considers the petition on its emergency docket.