Trump asks high court to let him fire Fed governor
By: Maureen Groppe
USA Today
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration on September 18 [2025] asked the Supreme Court to let the president remove Lisa Cook form the Federal Reserve board in a major test of the central bank's longstanding independence.
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"This application involves yet another case of improper judicial interference with the President's removal authority," Solicitor general John Sauer wrote in the administration's emergency request.
..... Trump is probing the limits of his executive power, including over agencies designed to be insulated from political influence.
..... In May, [2025] the Supreme Court said Trump could fire without cause members of two such agencies hat deal with labor issues.
..... But the majority also notably said the Federal Reserve is different from the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board.
..... The court called the central bank a "uniquely structured, quasi-private entity,: signaling the justices would likely uphold the constitutionally of the bank's for-cause removal protections.
..... Trump, however, argues he has sufficient justification. Trump said he fired Cook in August [2025] for allegedly making false statements on mortgage applications before she began her 14-eyar-term in 2023.
..... Cook hasn't been charged with a crime and hasn't had a chance to formally respond to Trump's accusations that she declared more than one home her "primary residence" in an effort to get a more favorable interest rate for a second home.
..... Documents reviewed by Reuters show Cook had declared the second property a "vacation home," countering other documents Cook's critics have cited.
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No president has ever e tried to fire a Fed governor since Congress created the board in 1913.
..... The law allows a Fed member to be removed "for cause" but does not say what that covers or specify a procedure for proving wrongdoing.
..... Cook agues Trump's allegations are a pretext to fire her for her stance on monetary policy.
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The Fed sets interest rates that help determine how fast or slow the economy grows. Trump has berated Fed chairman Jerome Powell for being too slow to lower interest rates to spur growth.
..... But Congress set up the seven-member Fed board to make its economic decisions independent of political pressure.
..... A federal district judge and a divided appeals court panel said Cook should be allow to remain on the board as she challenges Trump's efforts to remove her.
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The administration doesn't dispute that it failed to tell Cook why she was being fired and failed to respond, court of Appeals for the DC Circuit who heard the case on September 15. [2025]
..... Because of that, and because of the many ways the case is different from Trump's removals of members of other independent agencies, Cook should stay on the job for now, Judge Brad Garcia wrote in a concurring opinion joined by Judge Michelle Childs.