The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to remove Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook from office, ruling she can stay on the job while her challenge to the firing plays out in court. In a 5-4 vote, the high court said Trump does not have the constitutional authority to fire a Fed governor without cause.

Constitutional Authority

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the majority, which was joined by conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh, as well as the court’s three liberal members, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The four other conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, dissented.

Allowing Cook to be ousted now, Roberts wrote, “would allow the President to remove a member of the Federal Reserve at any time, for any reason, without any notice before, and without any judicial check after. That would turn for-cause protection into little more than at-will employment.”

Background

In August, Trump announced on social media that he was firing Cook, alleging she had committed mortgage fraud, which she denies. Cook sued and both a U.S. District Court and a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled the president’s effort to remove Cook likely violated the Federal Reserve Act.

No president has fired a sitting governor in the 112-year history of the Fed, which was structured to be independent of day-to-day politics. The case presented the court with one of the more extraordinary efforts by Trump to expand presidential power.

Original reporting: NBC Connecticut — read the source article.