The Supreme Court’s travel ban ruling could help Trump fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve
Lisa Cook filed a lawsuit this week that will likely go to the Supreme Court. The ruling could affect the Federal Reserve’s independence and, in turn, the U.S. economy. While the case is just starting, one precedent cited by Donald Trump may sound familiar: the travel ban case.
The administration points to the 2018 case, Trump v. Hawaii, which said courts have limited power to examine the president’s motives. This matters in Cook’s case because Trump says he’s firing her “for cause” over alleged mortgage fraud that happened before her Senate confirmation.
Cook has not been charged with any crime. She was confirmed to the Federal Reserve board for a term that ends in 2038. Federal law says there must be “cause” to remove her early, but it doesn’t explain what counts as cause or how to decide it. This is legally new and could have big real-world effects.
Before a hearing Friday in Washington, Cook’s lawyers called the mortgage claims “pretextual” and said Trump made them up “to effectuate her prompt removal and vacate a seat for President Trump to fill and forward his agenda to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve.”
In response, the administration referenced Trump v. Hawaii in a filing. They wrote, “Insofar as Dr. Cook seeks a ruling that the President’s stated rationale was pretext, the Court should decline ‘to probe the sincerity of the [president’s] stated justifications’ for an action when the President has identified a facially permissible basis for it.”
The administration’s lawyer also mentioned the 5-4 ruling during Friday’s hearing before U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, when she asked what kind of review can happen regarding Trump’s for-cause claim.
Cobb has not yet decided how the Cook case will move forward in the short term. Whatever her decision, it probably won’t be the last word. The travel ban case might also play a role in deciding the limits of the president’s power in this important situation.
