The Supreme Court again could be asked to rule on the extent of executive power after President Donald Trump announced he was removing Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor, from her position.
Trump on Monday posted a letter to Cook informing her of his decision to remove her from the Fed "for cause." He previously had called on her to resign over an accusation from one of his officials that she committed mortgage fraud.
CNBC reported that Cook, in a statement, said, "President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so."
Early last month, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that cleared the way for the Trump administration to fire federal workers, Axios reported. Liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined the conservative justices in the majority ruling.
Later in the month, the high court allowed the administration to remove three Democrat members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission who had been fired by Trump and then reinstated by a federal judge. The three liberal justices dissented.
In a May ruling that allowed Trump to fire members of independent federal agencies, the court said the Federal Reserve was a "uniquely structured, quasi-private entity" that has its own distinct historical tradition, NBC News reported.
Trump early in the summer suggested he would like to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who has been unwilling to accommodate the president's request to lower interest rates. Trump has since indicated he will let Powell's term run out in May.
Jennifer Nou, a University of Chicago law professor, said the president's firing of Cook appeared designed to give federal courts new legal questions to tackle, CNN reported. Those questions include: What counts as "cause?" Who decides, and what process is required, to remove someone from the Fed?
"Given the pretextual basis, what is clear is that Trump has violated a strong norm against firing Federal Reserve board members," Nou said, CNN reported. "If the court can't restore that norm, perhaps the markets will."
The Supreme Court in its May decision rejected an argument that if Trump got his way in the case, the Fed leadership would be threatened.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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