President Donald Trump’s decision late Monday to dismiss Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook escalated his yearlong effort to consolidate executive power and could open a new high-stakes legal battle at the Supreme Court.
The 6-3 conservative court has repeatedly allowed Trump to fire the leadership at independent agencies, but it has in the past drawn a line around the Fed. In May, the court called the Federal Reserve a “uniquely structured” agency with a long history of insulation from political interference from the White House that shouldn’t be changed.
“Because the Constitution vests the executive power in the president,” the court wrote in its unsigned order at the time, “he may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf, subject to narrow exceptions recognized by our precedents.”
The president has blamed the Fed’s leadership for years for moving too slowly, in his view, to lower interest rates.
Trump fired Cook with a letter he posted Monday night on social media, accusing her of committing mortgage fraud. The Justice Department has said it plans to investigate those allegations first raised by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte and prosecutor Ed Martin also said Cook should leave. Cook has not been charged with any wrongdoing and has vowed to fight her dismissal.
