Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: THE Supreme Court on October 1 declined to allow President Trump to immediately remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from the Board, saying it would instead review the administration’s efforts to oust her and reshape the central bank at oral arguments in January.
Top former Fed and Treasury officials and Cook’s legal team had warned the Supreme Court that permitting Trump to fire her while litigation over her status was underway would spur economic turmoil and undermine public confidence in the Fed. While the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has repeatedly cleared the way for the president to fire leaders of other independent agencies, the justices have recently signaled that the central bank is uniquely independent. In its two-sentence, unsigned order, the court deferred ruling on Cook’s status until after it heard arguments in the matter in January.
The court is already set to review some of the president’s most sweeping tariffs and his ouster of a leader of the Federal Trade Commission. The legal battle over Cook’s firing has major implications for the central bank and its ability to set interest rates free from political interference.
Every living former Fed chair — Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke and Janet L. Yellen — joined former Treasury secretaries nominated by presidents of both parties to tell the justices in a court filing that Cook should be allowed to stay on the job while her case was being reviewed.
