Deadline Legal Blog: Trump's quest to fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve is now with the Supreme Court

[LetMyPeopleVote]

It’s the latest legal test of Trump’s power in his second term. The Roberts Court has previously signaled its willingness to protect Fed independence.

It’s already been proven that Trump’s self-proclaimed causes are fabricated.

Trump’s quest to fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve is now with the Supreme Court www.msnbc.com/deadline-whi...

— @jimrissmiller.bsky.social 2025-09-18T20:35:54.994Z

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/lisa-cook-federal-reserve-supreme-court-trump-rcna232176

A challenge for Trump in fully controlling the board is that the Federal Reserve Act says the president can only remove board members for cause. And while the Supreme Court has been letting Trump fire members of other agencies without cause, the Republican-appointed high court majority went out of its way earlier this year to signal that it won’t let Trump do so with the Fed.

So the president seemingly needed to come up with a reason to fire Cook. That’s apparently what led his administration to develop the claim that she committed mortgage fraud prior to her Senate confirmation (her term expires in 2038). The board’s staggered terms are designed to insulate members from the whims of a given presidential administration. Recent reporting suggests the fraud claim might be false, and Cook hasn’t been criminally charged with any fraud......

The two judges in the appellate panel majority, Michelle Childs and Bradley Garcia, are Biden appointees (as are Cobb and Cook). In siding with Cook, they focused on due process, noting that the administration “does not dispute that it failed to provide Cook even minimal process — that is, notice of the allegation against her and a meaningful opportunity to respond — before she was purportedly removed.” In his dissent, Katsas wrote that Cobb was wrong to rule that Cook 1) had a constitutionally protected property interest in her office; and that 2) she can’t be removed based on conduct prior to her appointment......

When she filed her lawsuit in late August, Cook called Trump’s attempt to fire her “unprecedented and illegal.” Underscoring the stakes in her civil complaint, she noted that Fed independence “is vital to its ability to make sound economic decisions, free from the political pressures of an election cycle.” She warned that if “markets and the public believe that the central bank is making decisions based on political pressure rather than sound economic data, that confidence erodes.”

In her ruling to keep Cook on the board while her suit proceeds, Judge Cobb noted that the case involves “the first purported ‘for cause’ removal of a Board Governor in the Federal Reserve’s 111-year history,” and that it “raises important matters of first impression,” meaning issues that haven’t been legally resolved by courts before.

[Cha]

1. TY Kick

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. I looked at trump's filing and was not impressed with trump's claim that Lisa Cook received due process

Link to tweet

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26103308-cook-case-stay-app/
I love the concept that due process is what trump says it is

Even if Cook had a property interest in her office, her removal complied with the Due Process Clause. “[D]ue process is flexible and calls for such procedural protections as the particular situation demands.” Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 481(1972). And courts owe “deference to the political branches” when applying the Due Process Clause to matters within the political branches’ special competence. Fuld v.PLO, 606 U.S. 1, 23 (2025). Courts have no basis for demanding more process for the removal of a principal executive officer than the political branches choose to provide......

Cook received “notice of the charges” against her, Loudermill, 470 U.S. at 546, when the President publicized the criminal referral. See Compl. ¶ 43. The district court found the notice inadequate because it did not contain an “explanation of the evidence,” App., infra, 57a (ellipsis omitted), but the referral specifically identified the contradictory representations in Cook’s mortgage documents, see p. 7, supra. The court did not say what more Cook needed to know.

Cook also had “an opportunity to present [her] side of the story,” Loudermill,470 U.S. at 546. The President made clear that he viewed Cook’s conduct as grounds to remove her, then waited five days for her to respond. The district court faulted the President for not “invit[ing] Cook to submit” evidence, App., infra, 58a, but the Due Process Clause requires (at most) an opportunity to respond, not a formal invitation. Cook had an opportunity to explain why no misconduct occurred, and she spurned it.

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3. Roberts Seeks Cook's Response by Sept. 25 on Trump's Bid to Oust Her from Fed

Roberts has given Lisa Cook until Sept 25 to respond to trump's motion to lift stay on removing her from the Board of Governors of the Federal reserve

Link to tweet

JUST IN: Chief Justice John Roberts has set Thursday 4PM deadline for Fed member Lisa Cook's lawyers to respond to DOJ bid to carry out Trump's firing of her. Roberts did not (now) grant DOJ's request for an administrative stay to take Cook out

Link to tweet

Roberts Seeks Cook's Response by Sept. 25 on Trump's Bid to Oust Her from Fed

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has ordered Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to respond by September 25 to President Donald Trump's request to remove her from office, marking the latest escalation in this political and judicial clash. Since Trump announced his intent to dismiss Cook in late August, the dispute has triggered multiple court battles, centering on the extent of presidential interference in the Fed's independence.

Lower courts and appeals panels have previously rejected Trump's emergency motions, citing insufficient 'for cause' grounds, such as unproven mortgage fraud allegations against Cook that do not relate to her performance in office. As the first African American woman on the Fed board, appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2022, Cook's role in rate decisions is pivotal, especially following the Fed's September rate cut.