\n<\/p>\n
The US supreme court will hear oral arguments over Donald Trump\u2019s bid to fire a Federal Reserve governor on Wednesday morning, as his administration continues its extraordinary campaign for control over the central bank.<\/p>\n
The US president tried to fire Lisa Cook in August over apparent discrepancies on mortgage applications Trump\u2019s officials claim are evidence of fraud.<\/p>\n
Afederal court blocked Cook\u2019s removal, and she remains on the Fed\u2019s rate-setting board. The supreme court\u2019s decision on the case will test the limit of Trump\u2019s powers as leader of the executive branch.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration is waging an unprecedented battle with the Fed over interest rates, after policymakers defied the president\u2019s repeated calls for drastic cuts.<\/p>\n
The Department of Justice (DoJ) has been widely criticized this month for launching a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell, the US central bank\u2019s chairman. While it is pursuing Powell over renovations to the Fed\u2019s historic office buildings in Washington DC, he has argued he is being targeted for not \u201cfollowing the preferences of the president\u201d.<\/p>\n
Powell plans to attend Wednesday\u2019s hearing at the supreme court in person, according to reports.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s bid to remove Cook last summer marked the first time in US history that a president fired a sitting Fed governor. She was appointed by Joe Biden in 2022, becoming the first woman of color to serve on the Fed\u2019s board. Her term is set to be completed in 2038, as Fed governors serve at 14-year terms.<\/p>\n
The administration has alleged that Cook committed mortgage fraud by misrepresenting multiple properties as her primary residence to get a better mortgage rate \u2013 an accusation which initially came from Bill Pulte, a close Trump ally and head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who has instigated similar investigations against others, including New York attorney general Letitia James and Democrat senator Adam Schiff.<\/p>\n
Cook\u2019s lawyers have accused the administration of \u201ccherry-picking\u201d information, and argued that Cook accurately listed her property on other loan documents. The discrepancy the administration is focused on is an \u201cisolated notation\u201d, they have said.<\/p>\n
Beyond the accused mortgage fraud, Cook\u2019s lawyers are arguing that Fed governors can only be fired \u201cfor cause\u201d, and that the Fed governor was denied due process in violation of the US constitution\u2019s fifth amendment.<\/p>\n
Trump as president has enjoyed wielding seemingly-unlimited power from the executive branch, including allowing the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to fire tens of thousands of federal workers and defund programs across the government.<\/p>\n
But this case is set to test his limits. Last spring, supreme court justices briefly mentioned the supreme cCourt in an unrelated ruling around two labor officials Trump had fired. \u201cThe Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
Legal experts believe that the note suggests, softly, that the court may give special protections to the Fed, and its officials, that are not granted to other government agencies.<\/p>\n
Congress created the Fed in 1913 and gave it a unique structure that made it more independent than other parts of the executive branch. It does not receive funding directly from Congress. Its Federal Open Market Committee sets interest rates at eight scheduled meetings a year.<\/p>\n
Economic research has shown that a truly nonpartisan central bank, unswayed by politics, is essential in keeping economies and markets stable. That hasn\u2019t stopped Trump from embarking on a public campaign to get Fed officials to lower rates, a move he says would accelerate growth.<\/p>\n
The president has repeatedly made public attacks against Powell, who he has called \u201ca stupid person\u201d, and last spring privately told advisers that he wanted to fire Powell. While Trump backed down when markets dipped at news that he could fire Powell, he continued his relentless campaign.<\/p>\n
Fed officials have resisted playing along with Trump\u2019s desired agenda. The Fed has what it calls a \u201cdual mandate\u201d to manage inflation and unemployment. Raising interest rates can stabilize high prices at the risk of causing unemployment.<\/p>\n
Out of the eight rate-setting meetings the Fed held last year, economists lowered rates at only three of them, bringing rates down to a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. Fed officials, including Powell, have cautioned that Trump\u2019s policies, including mass deportations and increased tariffs, have been influencing prices and the labor market, and increasing uncertainty in the economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US supreme court will hear oral arguments over Donald Trump\u2019s bid to fire a Federal Reserve governor on Wednesday morning, as his administration continues its extraordinary campaign for control over the central bank. The US president tried to fire Lisa Cook in August over apparent discrepancies on mortgage applications Trump\u2019s officials claim are evidence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1532,1286,7442,160,4437,77,10089,159,71],"class_list":{"0":"post-42273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bid","9":"tag-board","10":"tag-cook","11":"tag-court","12":"tag-fed","13":"tag-fire","14":"tag-lisa","15":"tag-supreme","16":"tag-trumps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}