The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to take action against the Trump administration’s attempt to have Lisa Cook removed from her position as governor of the Federal Reserve, allowing her to stay in her position for the time being. The high court stated in a succinct, unsigned ruling that it would consider arguments about Republican President Donald Trump’s attempt to remove Cook from the Fed board in January.
While Cook’s appeal against Trump’s dismissal is still pending, the court will decide whether to overturn a lower court decision that found in her favor. The high court ruling was one of the few times that Trump did not immediately obtain all of his demands from the justices in an urgent appeal.
In a separate but related legal battle, the justices will hear arguments in December regarding Trump’s decision to dismiss members of the boards that regulate other independent federal agencies. Whether Trump can fire those individuals at will is at issue in this case. Cook’s fate, however, may be directly impacted by a second question in the case: can federal judges stop the firings or can they just seek back pay for officials who were wrongfully fired?
Prior to the Fed’s interest rate-setting committee meeting in September, Trump had attempted to fire Cook. However, a judge declared the dismissal unlawful, and a divided appeals court denied the Trump administration’s emergency appeal.
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