The Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump another key loss on Monday, barring him from firing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook for cause.
The high court denied the president’s emergency petition to allow Cook to be fired in the interim while the case proceeds 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority opinion.
“Last August, for the first time in the Federal Reserve’s 111-year history, the President attempted to fire one of its Governors,” Roberts wrote. “A few weeks later, a federal court issued an injunction to prevent him from doing so. We decide whether that order should remain in effect pending the conclusion of litigation over the attempted removal.”
Roberts’s majority opinion was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The high court issued its ruling in the emergency docket case Trump v. Cook, in which it was tasked with deciding whether to pause a lower court’s block on the president’s removal of Cook from the Federal Reserve while litigation in the case continues.
Trump attempted to fire Cook in August 2025, citing allegations by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte that, in 2021, she claimed two different homes as her primary residences to secure more generous loan terms. Pulte referred her to the Justice Department for mortgage fraud. A district court ruled in September that Cook could remain in her post while litigating the firing.
After a federal appeals court declined to pause the district court’s ruling, the Justice Department appealed the matter to the Supreme Court’s emergency docket. Instead of ruling on the emergency petition after receiving filed briefs, the high court made the rare move of scheduling oral arguments in the emergency case. The high court usually only does so for cases that it has taken up to decide on the merits.
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During the oral argument in January, the high court expressed concern over the DOJ’s arguments for what the bar for the “cause” necessary to fire Cook was, fearing the DOJ’s definition could water down removal protections for members of the Fed, essentially making them fireable at will.
The Supreme Court’s ruling marks the latest instance of the high court deciding the scope of the president’s powers, especially over the executive branch. The high court also heard arguments this term in a case over the president’s firing power over independent agencies in the executive branch without cause.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.