The Justice Department urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to put President Trump’s firing of Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook over mortgage fraud accusations into effect.
Cook participated in this week’s key vote cutting interest rates after a divided appeals panel rejected the administration’s plea to intervene beforehand.
The administration waited for the Fed’s meeting to conclude before going to the high court, which has regularly sided with Trump in emergency cases.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the application that the lower decisions “flout many strands of this Court’s precedents.”
The ask initiates a high-stakes battle at the Supreme Court over the independence of the Fed, which has traditionally been viewed as an institution kept arm’s-length from the White House’s political whims.
Trump is the first president to try to fire a Fed governor. He has also put the Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, in his crossfire before, including with threats of termination.
Trump fired Cook last month, citing a criminal referral from the Federal Housing Finance Agency that claimed she designated properties in Michigan and Georgia as both primary residences, a move that could result in lower mortgage rates.
However, Cook’s lawyers have doubled down that the Fed governor has not committed mortgage fraud and say subsequent media reports that she referred to her Atlanta property as a “vacation home” in a loan estimate cast doubt on the administration’s claims.
Cook also contends the president’s reasoning for her firing, or “cause,” falls short of what’s required by law.
Last week, a federal judge blocked Trump’s attempt to fire Cook, finding her removal was likely unlawful and she didn’t receive enough process to contest the accusations.
The administration raced to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ahead of the Fed meeting, but the court discarded the administration’s emergency bid to immediately refire Cook in a 2-1 decision Monday evening.
Cook went on to participate in the meeting of Federal Open Market Committee — the Fed’s monetary policymaking body, which includes the board members — which announced a quarter-point cut in its benchmark interest rate Wednesday afternoon.
The vote came as Trump has for months railed against the central bank for refusing to lower interest rates amid uncertainty around his trade agenda and the volatility of markets.
Cook voted with the majority for a quarter-point cut.
Stephen Miran, Trump’s newest pick to join the Fed’s board who was confirmed narrowly by the Senate earlier this week, was the sole dissenter — he voted for a larger, half-point cut.
