President Trump on Monday renewed his plans to try to fire Lisa D. Cook from the Federal Reserve, saying he would look for a way to oust her after the Supreme Court blocked his previous attempt to fire a sitting central bank governor.
In a social media post, Mr. Trump called the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision “procedural,” adding that he would “immediately take appropriate action to ensure that someone who has committed wrongdoing does not make vital decisions regarding the well-being of the United States of America!”
Mr. Trump took the extraordinary step of trying to fire Ms. Cook from the Fed last year, claiming she made false statements about her finances in order to obtain more favorable mortgage terms. Ms. Cook has not been charged with any crime and has denied any wrongdoing.
She challenged her firing in court, with her lawyers seeking to argue that the attempted firing fit a pattern of Mr. Trump seeking to pressure the Fed into lowering interest rates. In late September, a federal judge allowed Cook to continue in her role while she challenged the legality of the firing, prompting the administration to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The opinion, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., kept that decision in effect. The majority ruled Monday that the president did not properly give Ms. Cook an opportunity to respond to the allegations against her.
But this decision still leaves a lot unanswered. Although the justices emphasized the unique importance of the Fed as an independent agency, they did not clearly define the conditions under which Mr. Trump could fire a Senate-confirmed governor.
“To be clear, the ultimate question of whether the President can remove Cook for cause will depend in part on the underlying facts,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the majority.
“In this opinion, we have not addressed the facts, because they have not yet been discovered or analyzed according to the relevant legal standards,” he continued. “Rather, we have simply addressed the parties’ arguments regarding the appropriate legal standards by which the facts should be evaluated.”
