The Supreme Court on Monday denied President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, a landmark ruling that limits the president’s control over the independent central bank.
In a 5-4 decision, the majority ruled that Cook can continue serving in her role while a legal case challenging her termination plays out.
“Acceptance of the Government’s position would in effect transform the Federal Reserve’s for-cause protection into at-will employment—an interpretive leap out of step with the statute Congress enacted and our Nation’s tradition of central banking protected from political interference,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.
The justices argued that “Congress, not the courts” must change federal law regarding the removal of members of independent agencies.
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Cook celebrated the decision, claiming Trump attempted to exert control over the Federal Reserve through her termination.
“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,” Cook said in a statement.
The decision did “not address Cook’s constitutional due process argument, for the statute alone makes it unlikely that the Government will prevail on appeal as to the validity of the procedures used to fire Cook.”
The statute does not define the exact requirements to fire a member of the board “for cause” — though the Trump administration argued in a Supreme Court filing that “it allows removal for misconduct, incompetence, [or] failure to perform statutory duties.”
Trump responded to the ruling in a Truth Social post Monday morning, suggesting that the court’s ruling was made on a “strictly procedural basis” while vowing to continue his quest to oust Cook from the Fed’s Board of Governors.
The high court also expanded the president’s power over independent agencies in another decision on Monday. In a 6-3 ruling, the justices argued that at-will removal protections for members of the Federal Trade Commission violate the Constitution’s separation of powers, giving Trump the authority to fire Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the FTC.
In that opinion, the majority acknowledged that the Federal Reserve is one of the “historical exceptions” to its determination that most federal agencies do not operate as independent entities outside of executive branch control.
Bill Pulte, who added a role as acting director of national intelligence to his portfolio this month and launched his own mass firing campaign at the agency, accused Cook of mortgage fraud in August as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Pulte referred the case to the Justice Department, claiming on social media that Cook falsely identified her primary residence to qualify for beneficial loan terms in 2021 — before joining the Federal Reserve.
Trump sent a letter to Cook on Aug. 25 “notifying her of her dismissal from office.” Three days later, Cook sued the president, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and Fed Chair Jerome Powell to block her removal from office. Federal courts granted Cook a preliminary injunction in September, allowing her to remain on the Fed’s board while the Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court.
Cook was never charged with any wrongdoing in relation to Pulte’s accusations. Her attorney, Abbe Lowell, called the case “baseless” in a letter to the Justice Department.
“Making unproven allegations of mortgage fraud to justify a power grab has become a pattern of the Trump Administration, but today the Supreme Court said no,” Lowell said after the Supreme Court’s decision Monday.
Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, defending the president’s actions and rejecting Cook’s claim that her attempted termination was unconstitutional.
“Today’s decision is an unprecedented incursion on the Executive Branch. Neither the parties nor the Court can point to a single time in American history that this Court has upheld an injunction against the President’s removal of an executive officer,” Thomas wrote.
Cook incurred more than $1.3 million in legal and security expenses in her attempt to block her removal from the board, according to a federal filing released Thursday for her 2025 expenditures.
President Joe Biden appointed Cook in 2022 to a 14-year term, making her the first Black woman on the board.
Trump targeted Cook and the Fed in general as part of an aggressive push to get the central bank to lower interest rates.
The president repeatedly attacked Powell after he refused to acquiesce to Trump’s pressure campaign. When Powell’s term as chair ended in May, Trump replaced him with Kevin Warsh, who’s expected to be more amenable to the president’s economic agenda.
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