WASHINGTON(National Times)- The US Supreme Court refused on Monday 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 US president.
The court, in a 5-4 ruling, blocked Trump from removing Cook for now, providing a safeguard for the Fed specifically, even as it boosted the president’s power over government in a separate landmark ruling. In that ruling, involving Trump’s dismissal of a Federal Trade Commission member, the court expanded presidential authority to fire leaders of other agencies, overturning a precedent dating to 1935 in the process.
No other president since the central bank’s founding in 1913 had sought to oust a Fed governor. In his second term as president, Trump has tested the limits of presidential power in numerous other ways as well.
Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored the ruling, said Trump had “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”.
In a separate ruling, the court upholds dismissal of a member of the Federal Trade Commission
In August, Trump cited unproven mortgage fraud allegations in trying to oust Lisa Cook, the first black woman to serve as a Fed governor. Cook denied the allegations, calling them a pretext to remove her for monetary policy differences.
As a Fed governor, Cook helps set monetary policy with the rest of the central bank’s seven-member board and the heads of the 12 regional Fed banks.
Upholds sacking
In its separate 6-3 ruling powered by the conservative justices, the Supreme Court backed Trump’s firing of Democratic Federal Trade Commission (FTC) member Rebecca Slaughter. Trump called that ruling “one of the most important ever given with respect to presidential powers”.
The court overturned its pivotal decision in a case called Humphrey’s executor v. United States that rebuffed Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt’s attempt to fire an FTC member over policy differences.
Monday’s rulings follow the court’s Feb 20 decision in another case with major economic ramifications to strike down most of Trump’s sweeping global tariffs.
The Fed is the world’s most important central bank, an institution that determines the cost of credit for the United States and beyond and which has been in Trump’s crosshairs since his return to the presidency last year.
