Supreme Court Rules Trump Target Lisa Cook Can Remain at Fed

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that President Donald Trump does not have the executive authority to fire a member of the Federal Reserve.

The case revolved around Trump’s firing of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook last August after then-Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Bill Pulte accused her of mortgage fraud, which Cook denied.

“We have good news and bad news for President Trump when it comes to which federal officials he can fire,” reported CNN’s Paula Reid. “We have two similarly situated cases that are a little bit different. So let me walk you through them.”

Reid continued:

The first case was a question of whether President Trump could fire Federal Reserve official Lisa Cook. This is arguably one of the biggest questions of the term. And arguably, the Roberts court, because it really asked the question of the extent of President Trump’s executive power and the independence the Federal Reserve has from the White House here. A really interesting group of justices, Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Kavanaugh, and the liberal justices all ruled that President Trump cannot fire Lisa Cook. Now, we have to look closely at that decision, though, to see if there is any wiggle room for…her to be fired through emergency or other means.

Now, in a similar case, but a little bit different, there were questions about whether Trump could fire a woman named Rebecca Slaughter. She was a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. She was fired by President Trump. She set off another battle about whether President Trump had the authority to do this. The difference here is that this is an agency within the Executive branch. And here, in a 6-3 split, President Trump did win. They are saying she can be fired. So again, a split decision, which is very much expected after arguments on who President Trump can and cannot fire.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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