{"id":47433,"date":"2025-09-15T20:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T01:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=47433"},"modified":"2025-09-15T22:30:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T03:30:53","slug":"appeals-court-wont-let-trump-fire-lisa-cook-ahead-of-fed-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=47433","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court won\u2019t let Trump fire Lisa Cook ahead of Fed meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A federal appeals court Monday refused the Trump administration\u2019s request to permit<\/u><\/a> Federal Reserve board of governors member Lisa Cook\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>firing before this week\u2019s Fed meeting, setting the stage for a potential Supreme Court battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without the justices\u2019 intervention, Cook is set to participate in the Fed\u2019s upcoming vote on interest rate cuts after a judge last week ruled her firing likely unlawful<\/u><\/a> and reinstated her as the litigation proceeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2-1 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit keeps that ruling intact, rejecting President Trump\u2019s bid to fire Cook over mortgage fraud accusations, for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven these unique circumstances, and Cook\u2019s strong likelihood of success on at least her due process claim, the government\u2019s request for relief is rightly denied,\u201d U.S. Circuit Judge Brad Garcia wrote for the majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garcia was joined by U.S. Circuit Judges Michelle Childs,<\/u><\/a> both nominated to the bench by former President Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas, the panel\u2019s sole Trump appointee, dissented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my view, Cook cannot show error at all, much less such an extreme error as to warrant correction,\u201d Katsas wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump fired Cook late last month following a criminal referral<\/u><\/a> that alleges she falsely deemed properties in Michigan and Georgia as primary residences weeks apart in 2021 and improperly represented a third property as her \u201csecond home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president has long taken aim at the Fed for not lowering interest rates quicker, and Cook\u2019s firing marks the president\u2019s latest bid at terminating an independent agency leader who, under federal law, cannot be terminated without proper cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the other agencies, Trump doesn\u2019t purport to have cause in his firings, and his administration instead contends that their removal protections are unconstitutional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Fed, however, the president claims he has cause and is following the statute. Trump administration lawyers argue that the courts have no authority to second-guess the president on the mortgage fraud allegations, which amount to a valid reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe public and the Executive share an interest in ensuring the integrity of the Federal Reserve, and that requires respecting the President\u2019s statutory authority to remove Governors \u2018for cause\u2019 when such cause arises,\u201d the Justice Department wrote in court filings Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cook\u2019s lawyers cautioned the appeals panel against intervention. They argue that Trump didn\u2019t have a valid cause, and Cook had the right to a hearing to contest the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also pointed the court<\/u><\/a> to news reports that emerged last week that Cook referred to her Atlanta property as a \u201cvacation home\u201d in a loan estimate, saying it undercut the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA stay by this court would therefore be the first signal from the courts that our system of government is no longer able to guarantee the independence of the Federal Reserve,\u201d Cook\u2019s attorneys wrote in court filings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNothing would then stop the president from firing other members of the Board on similarly flimsy pretexts. The era of Fed independence would be over,\u201d they continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cook\u2019s lawyers have said unequivocally she \u201cdid not ever commit mortgage fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case arrived at the D.C. Circuit after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden\u2002<\/u><\/a>appointee, on Tuesday reinstated Cook<\/u><\/a> as her legal challenge proceeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has left the administration racing to the appeals courts ahead of this week\u2019s meeting, when economists widely expect the Fed will lower its key interest rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With its loss at the D.C. Circuit, the administration could still seek relief in the Supreme Court, which has regularly sided with Trump in emergency cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hill has reached out to Cook\u2019s legal team and the White House for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal appeals court Monday refused the Trump administration\u2019s request to permit Federal Reserve board of governors member Lisa Cook\u2019s\u2002firing before this week\u2019s Fed meeting, setting the stage for a potential Supreme Court battle. Without the justices\u2019 intervention, Cook is set to participate in the Fed\u2019s upcoming vote on interest rate cuts after a judge last week ruled her firing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":47434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7925,1723,1702],"class_list":["post-47433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-appeals","tag-court","tag-federal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47433"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47436,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47433\/revisions\/47436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}