After appearing likely to expand the powers of the president to remove the heads of independent agencies earlier this term, the Supreme Court seems ready to draw a line when it comes to one specific body: the Federal Reserve.
During oral arguments Wednesday, several justices seemed skeptical that President Donald Trump had adequate grounds to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors last August. The court is weighing the Trump administration’s emergency request to stop a lower court order that has allowed Cook to remain in her post as litigation over the president’s decision is ongoing.
The case, Trump v. Cook, is part of a broader examination by the Supreme Court of the power the president has to remove the heads of multimember independent agencies. The court’s conservative majority appeared poised in another case late last year to reverse nearly a century of precedent in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States shielding independent agency officials, like members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, from being removed from office without cause.
On Wednesday, however, the justices seemed skeptical of the Justice Department’s position that it had grounds for Cook’s “for-cause” removal. The Supreme Court’s ruling in the case could further clarify whether the justices plan to carve out distinct consideration for the Federal Reserve.
