Court: Trump can't fire Fed governor
But president now wields more power over independent agencies
By: Maureen Groope
USA Today
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on June 29 [2026] gave President Donald Trump one win and one loss in his effort to fire people.
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The justices made it easier for him to fire leaders of independent agencies in a decision that shifts power from Congress to the president and could redefine how more than a dozen agencies operate. Overturning a 90-year-olod precedent, the court said hat limits Congress placed on a president's ability to remove members of fatheaded Trade Commission encroached on presidential power. The 6-3 decision broke along ideological lines.
..... But they rebuffed the president's effort to exert unprecedented control over the economy, ruling tat he can't immediately fire Lisa Cook form the Federal Reserve. The 5-4 decision lets Cook remain on the central bank's board of governors while she challenges Trump's ability to dismiss her. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the liberals in the majority.
..... Trump has been probing the limited of executive power, including over agencies designed to be insulated form political influence.
..... The FTC enforces a variety of antitrust and consumer protection laws affecting virtually every area of commerce. It was established by Congress to be led by politically balanced boards of experts.
..... Under the "unitary executive theory" that conservatives have advanced for years, the Constitution gives presidents complete control over executive functions, including the power to remove commission members.
..... After taking office, he declared that all federal agencies were under his control, arguing it would make them more accountable to voters who choose presidents.
..... That same month, Trump fired the two Democratic members of the five-member FTC board, Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, He'd already removed Democratic members of two federal labor board and would later fire the three Democrats on the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
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Roberts wrote for the majority that a president "must have the assistance of officers he can trust," adding, "although it is up to the Senate too decide whether to confirm those with whom the President would prefer to work, neither Congress nor the courts may saddle him with those with whom he cannot work,"
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"In granting the President this unbridled authority, the Court upends its precedent, misconstrues our history, and sheds any pretense of judicial modesty," Justice Sonia Sotmayor wrote in a dissent joined by Justice Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
..... As Trump requested, the high court overturned a 1935 decision upholding removal restrictions for leaders of multi-member administrative agencies, Humphrey's Executor v. United States. The court had been chipping away at that decision since 2010.
..... But the federal Reserve, the justices indicated, is different. The Cook case tested restrictions on a president's ability to oust members of the Fed that were imposed by Congress decades ago to keep the central bank isolated from political pressure.
..... Federal law allows presidents to remove a member of the Fed board, but only "for cause." The law doesn't elaborate on what would qualify as a cause, nor does it specify a procedure for proving someone has committed a disqualifying act.
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Trump claimed on social media in August 2025 that Cook declared more than one home as her primary residence in an effort to get a more favorable interest rate for a second home. Cook has denied any wrongdoing.
..... The Fed has broad influence over the economy thorough its interest rate decisions. Although it's not unheard-of for presidents to pressure the Fed over monetary policy, Trump is the first president to try to remove a member of the central bank's board.
..... Cook has been part of the Fed's cautious approach to lowering rates that Trump has decried. Several economists, legal experts and Cook said they felt her attempted termination was motivated by the president's desire to influence monetary policy.
..... Every living former federal Reserve chair, along with many economists, emphasized to the Supreme court the importance of maintaining the central bark's independence. In Janaya, [2026] then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell called it "perhaps the most important legal case" in the Fed's history.
..... Roberts wrote, again for the majority, that Congress limited the president's power to remove Federal governors "for good reason."
..... Accepting Trump's argument, Roberts wrote, would mean allowing presidents to fire governors "for any reason, without any notice before, and without any judicial check after."
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"That would turn for-cause protection into little more than at-will employment," he wrote.
..... The ultimate question of whether Trump has a good enough reason to fire Cook, he said, will depend in part on the under-riving facts, which the court did not address.
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"Rather, we have simply addressed the parties' enlargement about the appropriate legal standards under which the facts must be evaluated," he wrote.
..... "This was never about mortgage documents signed years before I came a Federal Reserve governor," Cook said in a statement after the decision. "It was an attempt to remove me on a manufactured pretext because I refused to how to political pressure and continued to set inters rates based only on what would best serve the American people."
..... Trump, in a social media post,s aid the justices sent the case back to the lower courts "on a strictly procedural basis."
..... In a third case, the Supreme Court rule that a "geofence warrant" - a warrant seeking location data for cellphone uses near a specific place during a specific time period - entails a search subject to the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.
..... A Virginia man challenged law enforcement's use of a geofence warrant to get locations data on him from Google, which led to evidence hat was sued to convict him on a bank robbery.
..... The high court sent the case back down to an appeals court to determine whether the warrant in this case was "reasonable" as required.
..... The June 30 [2026] rulings will include whether states can prohibit transgender athletes form playing on female sports teams, a Republican challenge to campaign finance limits and whether Trump's order changing birthright citizenship is constitutional.
..... Contributing: Aysha Bagchi, Rachel Barber and Bart Janson, USA Today; Reuters