The Supreme Court Just Released Its Ruling on Whether Trump Can Fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook

Can President Donald Trump fire a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors? Not at this moment. This situation traces back to the president’s attempt to fire Lisa Cook for cause in August 2025, citing allegations of mortgage fraud. Naturally, she went to court to contest this, and in a 5-4 decision, Ms. Cook is allowed to remain at her post until her legal issues are fully resolved.

Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court. Thomas dissents. Alito dissents, joined by Gorsuch and Barrett.

Read the ruling here: https://t.co/ZgpSHRR37a
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) June 29, 2026

Trump v. Cook by Matt Vespa

Amy Howe of SCOTUSBlog provided a great explainer and a summation of the oral arguments, which were held in January:

The Supreme Court … appeared likely to leave Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, on the job while her challenge to President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire her continues. Although the Trump administration contends that the president acted within the law, a majority of the justices seemed ready to reject the government’s request to allow him to remove her, even if it was not clear whether the justices would send the case back to the lower courts or instead go ahead and rule that Trump does not have a good reason to fire Cook.
…arguments in Trump v. Cook implicated two related issues – the president’s power to fire the heads of multi-member, independent agencies and his ongoing frustration with the actions (or lack thereof) of the Federal Reserve. Since Trump took office last year, the court – on its interim docket – has allowed him to remove members of the National Labor Relations Board, Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Merit Systems Protection Board. The justices also heard arguments in December in the case of Rebecca Slaughter, a member of the Federal Trade Commission whom Trump fired in March. They are expected to decide by summer whether a federal law that bars him from removing members of the FTC except in cases of “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office” violates the constitutional separation of powers.
Trump has also been sharply critical of the Fed and its chair, Jerome Powell, since he was sworn in for a second term last year, particularly for its reluctance to lower interest rates. The Fed eventually lowered rates at meetings this fall.
Powell disclosed earlier this month that he is under investigation by Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, for alleged irregularities in the $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed’s headquarters and Powell’s statements to Congress about the renovation. The White House has said that Trump did not direct Pirro to investigate Powell, who attended Wednesday’s argument.
Cook was first appointed to the Fed in 2022; then-President Joe Biden reappointed her to serve a new 14-year term on the board in 2023. Under the Federal Reserve Act, Trump can only fire Cook “for cause” – a term that the law does not define.
In August 2025, Trump posted screenshots on the social media site Truth Social of a letter in which he fired Cook from the Fed. Trump contended that, before joining the Fed, Cook had committed mortgage fraud by designating both a house in Michigan and a condo in Atlanta as her “primary residence” when taking out loans within a two-week period. (Cook “unequivocally” denies the allegations and says that she is “prepared to refute the allegations in an appropriate forum.”)
Cook went to federal court in Washington, D.C., where U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb issued an order that allowed Cook to stay at the Fed while her challenge continued. When a federal appeals court declined to disturb that decision, the Trump administration went to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to intervene and allow it to remove Cook. In an order on Oct. 1, the court put that request on hold but agreed to hear arguments in January.
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, representing the Trump administration, told the court … that deceit or gross negligence by a financial regulator in a financial transaction should be cause for her removal. It “sends the wrong message,” he suggested, for someone like Cook to be setting interest rates for the American people.