The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Trump cannot fire Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook.
The Court issued a 5-4 ruling with the left-leaning justices joining the majority. Roberts and Kavanaugh rounded out the victory.
Justice Roberts rebuffed the Trump administration’s assertion that Trump’s firing of Cook couldn’t be reviewed in court and that she couldn’t remain in her position while challenging the decision.
“To accept any of those arguments would in effect transform the Federal Reserve’s for-cause protection into at-will employment,” he wrote.
Doing so would be out of line with the edict that Congress enacted and “our nation’s tradition of central banking protected from political interference,” Roberts continued.
In August, Trump issued an order positioning himself to fire Cook. It was the first time in the 112 years of the Federal Reserve that a sitting president had attempted to do so.
In September, an appeals court ruled 2-1 that Trump could not terminate Cook after asserting that she had not been given due process before being terminated. In October, the SCOTUS issued a preliminary ruling that she could remain in her role into 2026, when the Court would make a thorough evaluation of the case.
In the interim, former Fed chairs and top economists filed a brief warning the SCOTUS that terminating her would cause public trust in the Fed to wane.
Trump has alleged that Cook engaged in mortgage fraud, information he got from the social media influencer that he appointed to Housing Finance Director, Bill Pulte. The DOJ has not found any evidence of these claims.
