Supreme Court rules Trump can't fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook

The landmark ruling limits a president’s authority over the central bank.

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected President Donald Trump's legal rationale for removing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook from office, ruling she can stay on the job while her challenge to the firing plays out in court.

In a 5-4 vote, the high court said Trump does not have the constitutional authority to fire a Fed governor without cause. While the landmark ruling limits a president’s authority over the central bank, a majority of the justices separately ruled Trump has free rein to fire agency heads at will.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the majority, which was joined by conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh, as well as the court’s three liberal members, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The four other conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, dissented.

Allowing Cook to be ousted now, Roberts wrote, “would allow the President to remove a member of the Federal Reserve at any time, for any reason, without any notice before, and without any judicial check after. That would turn for-cause protection into little more than at-will employment.”

In August, Trump announced on social media that he was firing Cook, alleging she had committed mortgage fraud, which she denies. The case against Cook stems from allegations she claimed two properties, in Michigan and Georgia, as “primary residences” in June and July 2021, before she joined the Fed board. Such claims can lead to a lower mortgage rate and smaller down payment than if one of them was declared as a rental property or second home.

NBC News reported that Cook described her Atlanta condo on financial forms as a “vacation home,” which undermine's Trump's mortgage fraud allegations. Cook has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime.

Cook sued and both a U.S. District Court and a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled the president's effort to remove Cook likely violated the Federal Reserve Act. Under that law, designed to insulate the central bank from political interference, Fed governors can only be removed "for cause," which is generally seen as some kind of malfeasance or dereliction of duty. Trump then issued an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court's ruling.

In a statement after the ruling, Cook said her case was “never about mortgage documents signed years before I became a Federal Reserve governor.”

“It was an attempt to remove me on 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. That is the most fundamental obligation of a Federal Reserve governor,” Cook said. "Today’s 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."

No president has fired a sitting governor in the 112-year history of the Fed, which was structured to be independent of day-to-day politics. The case presented the court with one of the more extraordinary efforts by Trump to expand presidential power.

During oral arguments in January, the justices casted doubt on Trump’s bid to wrest control of the nation’s central bank. Allowing Cook’s firing to go forward “would weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve,” said Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of three Trump appointees on the nation’s highest court.

The true motivation for trying to fire Cook, Trump’s critics say, is the Republican president’s desire to exert control over U.S. interest rate policy. If Trump succeeds in removing Cook, the first Black woman Federal Reserve governor, he could replace her with his own appointee and gain a majority on the Fed’s board.

Trump has been dismissive of worries that cutting rates too quickly could trigger higher inflation. He wants dramatic reductions so the government can borrow more cheaply and Americans can pay lower borrowing costs for new homes, cars or other large purchases, as worries about high costs have soured some voters on his economic management.

Besides trying to fire Cook, Trump had threatened to fire former Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell if he didn’t leave the board when his term as chairman ended in mid-May. Powell has remained as a governor, even as Kevin Warsh has replaced him as chairman.

Trump suggested Monday that he would still seek to remove Cook, saying in a Truth Social post that he lost this case “on a strictly procedural basis" and "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!”