In Trump's Attempted Firing of Fed Gov, a 'Legal Gray Area'

President Trump's fight to get rid of a Federal Reserve governor doesn't look to be over anytime soon—and likely will end up in front of the highest court in the land. That's per ABC News, which notes that "no president has ever tried to terminate a member of the Federal Reserve for cause, and no court has ever been asked to weigh in on such an action." The outlet expects at least a possible preliminary decision on Lisa Cook by the end of 2025, centered on Trump's mortgage fraud allegations against her, though it notes it's "far from clear" which way the Supreme Court would ultimately lean. More:

• 'For cause': The Washington Post takes a closer look at the legalities of the case, citing Section 10 of the Federal Reserve Act, which notes that members of the board "shall hold office for a term of 14 years from the expiration of the term of his predecessor, unless sooner removed for cause by the president." It's the "for cause" part that's causing a "legal gray area," per the Post, with Trump lobbing so-far-unproven accusations against Cook of her claiming two different properties as her primary residence.

• Precedent: SCOTUS' 1935 Humphrey's Executor ruling laid out that presidents can only remove members of independent agencies for such things as dereliction of duty or malfeasance, though just this year, the Supreme Court issued interim rulings despite that 1935 decision that gave Trump the OK to terminate some independent regulators without cause. The court did, however, cite the Federal Reserve as an exception to its rulings, which it described as a "uniquely structured, quasi-private entity."
• Cook's background: An economist by trade appointed to the board by former President Biden, Cook earned her bachelor's degree at Atlanta's Spelman College, then another bachelor's at Oxford, which she attended as a Marshall scholar. She holds a PhD in economics from UC Berkeley. Cook is the first Black woman to serve on the Fed's board, and her term was scheduled to end in early 2038.
• More on Cook: Cook also served as a senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers under former President Obama, and she's taught at Harvard and Michigan State, with "some of her most well-known research ... focused on the impact of racial violence on African-American innovation, and consequently wider economic growth," per the AP. She also served as an adviser in the Treasury Department in both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.
• Pulte: CNN, meanwhile, has more on Bill Pulte, the "obscure" chief of the Federal Housing Finance Agency who raised the mortgage fraud allegations against Cook. Pulte has also been very vocal about wanting Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term at the helm ends in May, to step down.