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The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday that President Donald Trump cannot fire Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook while she contests his administration’s unproven allegations of mortgage fraud, dealing a crucial blow to his pressure campaign of the central bank.
However, in a separate 6-3 ruling, the justices simultaneously made it easier for Trump to fire members of other independent agencies by overturning a decades-old legal precedent known as Humphrey’s Executor that required cause for these dismissals.
In the Cook ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts along with Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson argued for the majority that Congress alone can determine whether the Fed should be treated like other independent agencies. The justices took a first step toward establishing why the Fed was different last spring.
“As the Government concedes, Congress limited the President’s power to remove Governors for good reason” to protect Fed independence, Roberts wrote on behalf of the majority. “Any change in that scheme must come from Congress, not the courts. That is why we cannot accept the Government’s contentions in this case.”
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The majority also said Cook had been denied due process, writing that she “could not properly dispute the charges the President laid against her.” But the justices declined to weigh in on whether mortgage-fraud allegations could, if proven true, eventually serve as grounds for her dismissal.
“Today’s interim ruling does not decide whether the president may lawfully remove Governor Cook for cause,” Kavanaugh wrote in a concurring opinion.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett dissented.
Cook in a statement said the ruling “affirms a principle that has underpinned sound economic stewardship for generations: that the Federal Reserve must make all its policy decisions guided by evidence and independent judgment, free from political interference.” She derided Trump’s attempt to fire her as “a manufactured pretext because I refused to bow to political pressure and continued to set interest rates based only on what would best serve the American people.”
On Truth Social, Trump signaled he would not stop his attempts to oust Cook. “The Cook Lawsuit, having to do with her suitability in sitting on the Board of the Federal Reserve, was sent back by the Supreme Court on a strictly procedural basis, we will take appropriate action immediately to make sure that someone who has committed wrongdoing will not be making vital decisions concerning the Welfare of the United States of America!” he wrote.
The president also celebrated the second ruling for “greatly increasing Presidential Power at a time when it is most needed!”
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- Trump’s effort to fire Cook is one of several actions that has led to friction between him and Republicans on Capitol Hill, Semafor previously reported.