U.S. Supreme Court rejects Trump's unprecedented bid to fire Fed’s Cook
The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday (June 29, 2026) to let Donald Trump fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook as it stood firm to
The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday (June 29, 2026) to let Donald Trump fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook as it stood firm to preserve the central bank’s cherished independence against an unprecedented challenge by the Republican President. The court, in a 5-4 ruling, blocked Mr. Trump’s bid to become the first President to remove a Fed official since Congress created the central bank in 1913. In his second term as President, Mr. Trump has tested the limits of presidential power in numerous other ways as well. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts and fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh were in the majority, along with the court’s three liberal justices. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett dissented. Roberts, who authored the ruling, said Mr. Trump “failed to afford Cook the procedural protections to which she was entitled by statute. Without such protections, she could not properly dispute the charges the president laid against her.” The Federal Reserve’s governors “do not serve at the president’s pleasure - they instead serve staggered 14 year terms, and may be removed only ‘for cause,’” Mr. Roberts added. Trump last August had cited unproven mortgage fraud allegations in trying to oust Ms. Cook, the first Black woman to serve as a Fed Governor, while she called that a pretext to remove her for monetary policy differences. ‘I refused to bow’ In a statement on Monday (June 29, 2026), Ms. Cook welcomed the court’s decision, saying it affirms the Fed’s obligation to make policy decisions independently, free from political interference. “This was never about mortgage documents signed years before I became a Federal Reserve governor. 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,” Ms. Cook said. The Justices denied a request from Mr. Trump’s Justice Department to lift a Judge’s order barring him from immediately firing Cook while her legal challenge to the termination continues to play out. Cook denied Mr. Trump’s allegations. In another ruling on Monday (June 29, 2026), the Supreme Court backed Mr. Trump’s firing of Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic Federal Trade Commission member, expanding his powers over the government and overturning its 1935 precedent that had recognised the authority of Congress to protect leaders of certain regulatory agencies from presidential removal at will. Monday’s (June 29, 2026) Ms. Cook ruling follows the February 20 decision by the Justices in another case with major economic ramifications to strike down most of Mr. Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, a ruling that elicited a vitriolic condemnation of the court by the president.
The BriefWire