The United States Supreme Court has ruled that President Trump can not remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. The Supreme Court expanded presidential power on Monday by affirming President Trump’s ability to fire most independent regulators, though the justices explicitly affirmed the Federal Reserve’s independence and said its leaders could not be dismissed at will.
The case centered on whether Trump had sufficient legal authority to fire Cook, a question with sweeping implications for the Federal Reserve’s independence and the limits of presidential power over one of the nation’s most influential economic institutions. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the court’s three liberal justices — Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett dissented.
President Trump reiterated his intention to try and fire Lisa D. Cook from the Federal Reserve after the Supreme Court’s decision, saying he would look for a way to oust her after the Supreme Court. In a post to Truth Social, the President described the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 decision as “procedural,” adding that he would “take appropriate action immediately to make sure that someone who has committed wrongdoing will not be making vital decisions concerning the Welfare of the United States of America!”
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Last year, Fed Governor Cook was accused of mortgage fraud. FHFA Director Bill Pulte accused Cook of committing fraud in 2021 while seeking mortgages on two properties — a home in Michigan and a condo in Atlanta — both of which she described as her primary residence within a two-week period. In a statement following Monday’s Supreme Court decision, Cook said the case “was never about mortgage documents signed years before I became a Federal Reserve governor,” arguing instead that the effort to remove her was based on a “manufactured pretext” because she refused to allow politics to influence her work at the central bank.