Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook filed a lawsuit claiming President Trump has no power to remove her from office, setting up a legal battle that could reset long-established norms for the US central bank's independence.
Subscribe to The Afternoon Docket: reut.rs/4iQvdSd— Reuters Legal (@legal.reuters.com) August 28, 2025 at 3:30 PM
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Save the date: A judge just scheduled a hearing for this Friday in the Lisa Cook case. 10am ET.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 1:55 PM
This is very much an evolving story — I’ve been collecting links, waiting on more definitive actions:
Just received this statement from Lisa Cook:
"President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022."— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) August 25, 2025 at 11:02 PM
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Undermining the Fed to get lower rates now is like ripping the batteries out of your smoke alarm because it’s beeping. It’s quiet for a bit. Then your house burns down. Credibility anchors expectations; expectations anchor inflation.
— Justin Wolfers (@justinwolfers.bsky.social) August 27, 2025 at 7:52 AM
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Activist judge!
NEW: Jia Cobb, Biden-appointed judge who will oversee legal fight over Trump's firing of Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook, has weighed in against his expedited deportation policy and wrangled w/suits over FBI agents who worked on #J6. w/@kyledcheney.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/08…
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 1:18 PM
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TRO = Temporary Restraining Order:
The stakes apparently couldn't be higher in the Lisa Cook case. This from the request for a TRO:
"(Cook's) purported firing would jeopardize the independence of the Federal Reserve, and ultimately, the stability of our nation's financial system."
The TRO filing also has a Cook denial: 1/3— Michael McKee (@mckonomy.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 1:35 PM
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"Consequently, neither the type of “offense” the President cited nor the threadbare evidence against Governor Cook would constitute “cause” for removal even if the President’s allegations were true—which they are not." 2/3
— Michael McKee (@mckonomy.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 1:35 PM
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And:
"There is no conceivable interpretation of "for cause" removal protection that would allow the President to fire Governor Cook, either for his true motive or the pretextual one he has invented." 3/3— Michael McKee (@mckonomy.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 1:35 PM
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Some assume Gov Cook's guilt b/c she did not publicly deny the allegations. Serious people don't stage careful legal defense by tweet…but today's filings include such denials if you need to scratch that itch…also: "That the President says he has found a 'cause' does not magically make it so."
— Julia Coronado (@jc-econ.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 1:28 PM
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Previously…
BREAKING: President Trump fires Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook amid mortgage fraud allegations, opening a new front in a fight over the central bank.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) August 25, 2025 at 8:29 PM
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Statement on Donald Trump’s baseless attack on Dr. Lisa Cook.
— Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social) August 26, 2025 at 10:38 AM
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gosh, why would Trump focus on her
— Tom Nichols (@radiofreetom.bsky.social) August 25, 2025 at 9:14 PM
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Do not forget. It’s about control of the Fed. This is a very dark day.
— Claudia Sahm (@claudia-sahm.bsky.social) August 25, 2025 at 8:29 PM
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The Federal Reserve Board of Governors has been around for 111 years. In that time it has had more than 100 members (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal…).
No president has ever fired (or claimed to have fired) one before.— Adam Keiper (@adamkeiper.com) August 25, 2025 at 10:53 PM
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NPR had a story about Cook's research. Very interesting
1899 remains the peak year for African American patents per capita
US lost out on more than 1,100 inventions from Black inventors because of violence and inequality Equivalent to patents from a medium-sized European country
Racism is costly🙄— J.T Sparks (@jsparks25.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 12:45 PM
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"I was encouraged to see the CDC director refused to resign, to force the Trump administration to fire her. I was thrilled to see Lisa Cook refuse to passively accept Trump's attempt to fire her and to say instead, no, this is illegal," says @brendannyhan.bsky.social.
— Perry Bacon (@perrybaconjr.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 12:11 PM
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1. The president is an obvious bigot
2. His administration is pursuing a panoply of racist and sexist policies
3. Lisa Cook is the first Black woman on the Fed board and has done research on economic effects of racism
How are we not talking about this?
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/can-we-ple…— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman.bsky.social) August 28, 2025 at 2:15 PM
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Earlier this year, SCOTUS tried to construct a stupid legal framework where the President was allowed to destroy basically all independent institutions except for the Federal Reserve, which was deemed too economically important.
Unsurprisingly, even that was not enough for Trump.— Joey Politano?????? (@josephpolitano.bsky.social) August 25, 2025 at 8:39 PM
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Whatever happens with Cook, Trump targeting her in this fashion, in a way that most people see through, is the start of real trouble for the Fed and how it conducts policy. Fed already was leaning toward the rate cuts Trump wanted, now he's targeting key staff, will get messy.
— Michael Derby (@michaelsderby.bsky.social) August 25, 2025 at 8:28 PM
H.E.Wolf
MacArthur Grant awardee, professor, and sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom, on the targeting of Black women.
Click the “x” if you aren’t on Instagram and would still like to listen.
instagram.com/tressiemcphd/reel/DNyVdBW4hyK/?hl=en
If you prefer reading to listening, I recommend the essays in Thick as a good starting point for her work.
piratedan
wonder if the Fed will get the stones to tell him to fuck off. Very few institutions appear willing to do so, since the underpinning of thee country’s economic standing is in the balance… maybe. Perhaps the Fed would take the long view that based on Trump’s past economic history with the federal budgets, economic policy and his own well established fuckery on his personal and organizational financial affairs would provide them with the spine to say, go play in traffic son, come back to us when you’ve caught the fire engine.
Baud
Women are tough. We should elect one president one day.
zhena gogolia
He’s such a racist pig.
H.E.Wolf
@H.E.Wolf:
McMillan Cottom’s points are among the reasons I’m supporting Black women in every way I can.
Rusty
The rampant arbitrariousness of the reactionary six on SCOTUS is the decision to make the executive all powerful, BUT FOR the Fed. There is absolutely no legal basis for this distinction from other independentagencies, other than they dont want to risk their investment portfolios.
kindness
Trump picked going after Cook because she is a) black, b) a woman & c) a Joe Biden appointee. Trump could have gone after any of the other 10 board members using the same flimsy reasons, but those members don’t get his racist supporters hot in the nether regions like Cook’s firing does.
Baud
@Rusty:
Agreed.
bbleh
SOME people — notably those who control or have careers in major media — are not talking about it because it would not be in their business / career interests to do so. The bigots — who comprise a substantial and disproportionately noisy fraction of their customer base and who believe that they cannot be called out for the bigotry because that’s Woke and Woke is bad now — would complain mightily, leading advertisers to complain, etc., and the Parteigenosse who serve in the administration would cut off access, all of which they cover up with a carefully Savvy “oh everybody knows that.”
I don’t think it will happen, but I would LOVE it if the Fed Board decided NOT to do a September rate cut PRECISELY BECAUSE of “the potentially inflationary effects of the uncertainty injected into the economy by the President’s actions, including the attempted dismissal of a Board member” or something like that.
princess leia
Did you know that now the new judges being hired for immigration court do not have to have ANY experience in immigration law????
From Immigration attorney Scott Hicks (via FB)
“I do not even have the words to fully express how completely insane this.
The only body of law comparable in complexity to immigration law is tax law. It literally takes years to master this stuff.
I’ve been doing immigration law for 30 years. If you somehow think that qualifies me to be a tax lawyer, I would laugh in your face. Even with my experience, I run across stuff where I don’t know the answer.
To allow a lawyer with no immigration experience to be an immigration judge is malpractice.
The only lawyers with no immigration experience who will apply are either complete fools who can not even figure out they are not qualified or they are extremists with an agenda.
The only way such an attorney could be a judge is if they are just being hired to say no. Which is pretty much what this administration wants, seeing as they fired the immigration judges Biden hired or promoted who were still in their probation periods. “
bbleh
@Rusty: or their personal political preferences, or really whatever.
We have entered what some call the “ipse dixit” era of SC jurisprudence. They are behaving (EAIAC) exactly as the Right have long accused judges of behaving, ie as “unelected legislators.” This is the law (today) because we say so (today).
I cannot WAIT to arrange to have as much human excrement as possible dumped on the grave of Mitch McConnell.
Melancholy Jaques
The political media have never called out people for being racists. They all take a vow or something. Or maybe it’s that their bosses tell them they’ll be fired if they try it.
TONYG
It’s such an amazing coincidence that that person that he wants to fire is a black woman. I certainly didn’t see that coming.
Shalimar
Trump is an idiot for trying to fire Cook. The Fed wants to lower interest rates as soon as they are positive it won’t hurt the economy, just like Trump wants them to do. The economy will be struggling within a year anyway. If the Fed is no longer independent, Trump will get 100% of the blame instead of being able to blame them like he does now.
Shalimar
@Baud: We should have elected two president already.
laura
Try me bitch should be the response from every single person this administration comes for.
jonas
How can Trump be a bigot when Gloria Gaynor loves him so much?
/s
Aside from that, if Trump thinks his big “Liberation Day” roiled markets, wait until it starts sinking in that he’s hellbent on taking over the Fed and politicizing the regulation of the financial world. That’s going to be a whole ‘nother level of shitstorm. He’s too stupid to comprehend what he’s dealing with here.
azlib
It is ironic that Ms Cook probably supports a small rate cut. But I agree he went after her because she is black and he is a raging racist.
jonas
@Shalimar: All correct. But recall that Trump (and many of the people around him this time around) are very stupid and don’t know how anything works. Possibly Scott Bessent knows better, but he’s a complete dignity wraith at this point, a flickering shade of cowardice and fecklessness.
TheOtherHank
The Congressional imperative to release a wall of text response rather than getting in front of a camera acting like they’re angry makes me angry
ETA: He didn’t even put in any alt-text for the image. Thanks, Congressman Jeffries, that’s super helpful
They Call Me Noni
I hate this sumbitch with the burning fury of a thousand suns. There is no punishment or amount of suffering he could endure that would satisfy my deep and wide hatred of him. I have held this opinion for a decade now and I just want to live long enough to witness his demise.
I don’t recall if it was WG or AL who so eloquently described a fate involving broken light bulbs and rusty pokers but I did think it was not only genius but very fitting for him.
Geminid
@TheOtherHank: “Wall of text”? Two paragraphs of 37 and 45 words? Sheesh.
Suzanne
FFOTUS is such a despicable piece of shit that it sometimes still manages to surprise.
zhena gogolia
@Suzanne: I’m not really surprised by anything. He doesn’t surprise me. I knew before Nov. 5 that it would all be horrific. I’m just bored, bored, bored by him. As I am by his master Putin. Being horrible doesn’t keep you from being boring.
Omnes Omnibus
She should not go quietly. The person who “fired” doesn’t have the legal authority to do so. It would be like the time Baud tried to fire WaterGirl.
ETA: added a necessary not
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
We might be in the minority when it comes to that sentiment.
Mike in Pasadena
@Baud: Black women especially. Fighting back matters. Saw a short on youtube by a physician explaining that blue states sued to get Healthcare grants back and got 80 percent of the grant money back. Red states did not sue. Reds are closing clinics and losing programs like Texas’ measles vax program as their little problem worsened.
Edited to remove demented errors.
Jeffro
YES
NO RESIGNING – MAKE THEM FIGHT FOR EVERY INCH!
mrmoshpotato
@Suzanne:
How true this is.
Mike in Pasadena
@kindness: I agree with everything you wrote.
Suzanne
@zhena gogolia: I suppose I should be more precise and say that he shocks me from time to time, but he never really surprises me. I know he is human garbage.
Mike in Pasadena
@bbleh: Because I say so. Arbitrary and capricious decisions without support in precedent or reasoning. The present Republican Supremes motto.
satby
So here for a knock down drag out fight over this. You go Gov. Cook!
Some real push back from the finance media here too. Is our billionaires worried? Along with this comes Jennifer Rubin’s column today: ” Is The Trump Regime Trying to Kill Us?”
Mike in Pasadena
@They Call Me Noni: I do not wish for Trump’s death. I want him to suffer a stroke that renders him speechless, unable to text, unable to feed himself, and incapable of doing anything without help. Then, I want him to live a long time in severe pain from shingles, adult onset measels, boils in his anus, and giant, bloody sores oozing bloody pus from all of his skin that doctors cannot cure or lessen.
Captain C
@Mike in Pasadena: This seems fair.
hueyplong
@Mike in Pasadena: Tack on needing a catheter but having it replaced every week due to recurring infections, and I’m with you.
planetjanet
@Geminid: The “you’re doing it wrong caucus” is out. It is such a feckless reaction
Professor Bigfoot
@Geminid: Not everyone can read, you know.
Mike in Pasadena
@hueyplong: Yeah, excellent. Daily catheter removal and insertion. If they can find his tiny dick. One of medical science’s most painful procedures.
Old Man Shadow
The SCOTUS opinion saying, “Okay, so you can fire the Federal Reserves’ employees now, Sir, because reasons. Thank you, Sir, may we have another?” should, at least make for fun reading.
Suzanne
@Mike in Pasadena: Something that made me smile today: a text exchange between two Swiftie friends.
FRIEND 1: did you see Instagram? Or Twitter! Or anything? I can’t believe this is how I found out!
FRIEND 2: Did it finally happen?!
FRIEND 1: Assuming we’re speaking of the same thing?
FRIEND 2: DID HE DIE?!?!
FRIEND 1: WOAH WOAH WOAH WAIT WAIT NO
FRIEND 1: Go to Taylor Swift’s Insta!
Yeah girls. Come sit by me.
A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)
@Mike in Pasadena: What? No maggots in his scrotum?
Mike in Pasadena
@A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno): Ooh, perfect.
Geminid
@Suzanne: I expect more people will be watching Kansas City Chiefs games this year than might have if not for this engagement. But when Kelce takes a bone-jarring hit will the Swifties be wincing, or high-fiving each other?
More seriously, Travis Kelce has got to be wondering if this is his last year in the pros. KC was already cutting back on his downs last season, in order to limit the wear and tear.
They Call Me Noni
@Mike in Pasadena: I approve. And while he is coherent enough to be aware I want him to watch the inauguration of a black woman. That would do him in.
Ned F.
I’m waiting to hear from anyone in the “Party of fiscal responsability’, who in the polls say the public trusts them more over the Democrats regarding economics. I don’t have a subscription to the Journal, but I hope there’s a little trepidation.
zhena gogolia
@They Call Me Noni: Yeah!
Cheryl from Maryland
@satby: Thanks for the link. That was a great opinion by Rubin, calling out the GOP members of Congress, calling the Supreme Court the “MAGA Supreme Court, and calling out any and all who support this fast track to death and destruction.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Mike in Pasadena: Cosign
sab
@Geminid: I am hoping this is his last year. Go out on a high with his physical health good enough to get on with the next forty plus years of his life.
Paul in KY
@Mike in Pasadena: Come sit by me.
Kayla Rudbek
@princess leia: yeah, there’s no way I would ever try taking on immigration law (and the way this maladministration is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if they opened up the Patent Bar and the patent examination corps to people without a science/engineering bachelor’s or equivalent credit hours)