US Supreme Court allows Lisa Cook to remain at Fed

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to immediately fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. 

The decision came as the court, in a 5-4 ruling, blocked 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, Trump has tested the limits of presidential power in numerous other ways as well.

The court stood firm to preserve the central bank's cherished independence against an unprecedented challenge by the Republican president.

The US supreme court's latest refusal to Donald Trump’s attempts for immediately firing a Federal Reserve governor, is a landmark ruling that limits a president’s authority over the central bank.

The court said that Lisa Cook can stay on as a governor while she fights unproven allegations of mortgage fraud made by the Trump officials.

“The Court decides this application on the narrow ground that the President 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 justices said.

The case was centered on Cook, a Joe Biden appointee whose 14-year term on the Federal Reserve board of governors is scheduled to expire in 2038.

Cook is the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board.

The justices’ protection over the Fed decision is a departure from how the court has handled Trump in his second term, allowing the president broad power to carry out his agenda without congressional approval.

Last August, on social media, Trump abruptly fired Cook. The president claimed he had evidence that Cook committed mortgage fraud, an illegal practice where a homebuyer lists a second property as a primary resident to get a better mortgage rate. Cook denied the allegations and sued the Trump administration, saying it fired her without cause.