Supreme Court lets Lisa Cook stay at Fed as Trump fight heads to January

Lisa Cook will stay on the Federal Reserve Board… at least until January. The Supreme Court has refused Trump’s demand to remove her now, choosing instead to hear full arguments next year.

This delays what the former president hoped would be an instant firing, and leaves Lisa sitting in a powerful seat he wants to take control of.

Trump’s Department of Justice tried to rush it. On September 18, they filed an emergency request to throw out a federal court’s block on Lisa’s removal.

That block came earlier this month from U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb. Cobb said Trump’s claim, that Lisa committed mortgage fraud, didn’t meet the Federal Reserve Act’s “for cause” requirement for firing someone from the Fed. And that word “cause”? It’s of course pretty vague.

The law says Fed governors serve 14-year terms unless they’re removed “for cause,” but it doesn’t spell out what that means. Courts have taken it to mean clear things like inefficiency, neglect, or corruption, not political beefs.

The White House isn’t letting it go. They appealed Cobb’s ruling to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, hoping for a reversal. No luck. On September 15, in a 2–1 decision, the appeals court also sided against Trump. So, blocked twice.

Trump admin pushes fraud claim to get back at the Fed

A White House spokesperson allegedly said on Wednesday that “President Trump lawfully removed Lisa Cook for cause from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.” He added, “We look forward to ultimate victory after presenting our oral arguments before the Supreme Court in January.”

Lisa is fighting back. She told the Court last Thursday that letting Trump remove her now would do serious damage, not just to her, but to the Fed itself. Her lawyers wrote in a filing:

“Granting the President’s request for immediate relief to alter the status quo would sound the death knell for the central-bank independence that has helped make the United States’ economy the strongest in the world.”

They also warned that unless the president’s powers are checked, “any president could remove any governor based on any charge of wrongdoing, however flawed.” In other words, no one would be safe.

Lisa, who was appointed by President Biden, is still doing her job. She showed up at the Fed’s policy meeting last week, cast her vote, and helped approve a 25 basis-point rate cut. She’ll likely be present at the next two meetings in late October and December unless the Court suddenly changes course, which is unlikely before January.