Trump takes battle with Lisa Cook to Supreme Court: There’s ‘sufficient cause’ to fire Fed governor

US President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday asked the country’s Supreme Court to immediately allow the American leader to remove Lisa Cook as the governor of the Federal Reserve. Ever since returning to the White House, Trump has moved aggressively to fire leaders of independent agencies as he seeks to expand executive power and seize control of the federal bureaucracy.

For months, his administration has been targeting the American central bank, pressing policymakers to lower interest rates. In light of this, the Supreme Court’s Conservative majority has repeatedly allowed Trump to at least provisionally fire leaders of other agencies without stating a reason.

However, the court’s justices have maintained that the Fed may be uniquely insulated from presidential meddling under the law. Despite this, Trump noted that there was “sufficient cause” to fire Cook as the central bank’s governor.

What are the arguments?

It is pertient to note that the Justice Department lawyers have argued that the president has the power to fire Cook because Trump has alleged that the latter engaged in mortgage fraud in loan documents she signed before she joined the Fed in 2022. However, Cook has not been charged with any crime over the matter.

According to The New York Times, the emergency request to the US Supreme Court came three days after an appeals court refused to allow the president to remove Cook, who was appointed by former US President Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, Cook sued the Trump administration, challenging her firing; the lawsuit is currently pending in court. On Wednesday, Cook was present when the Federal Reserve voted to cut interest rates for the first time since December.

On Thursday, Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that the reinstatement of Cook by the lower court was “yet another case of improper judicial interference with the president’s removal authority — here, interference with the president’s authority to remove members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for cause.”

The judges in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia blocked Cook’s ousting in a 2-to-1 ruling. Judge Gregory G. Katsas dissented from the judgment, citing the Federal Reserve Act, first enacted in 1913, which states that each member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors will hold office for 14 years, unless “removed for cause by the president.”