The six Republican justices have largely behaved as lickspittles to the leader of their political party. These are, after all, the same GOP political appointees who said that President Donald Trump is allowed to commit crimes.
Last May, however, the Court did appear to draw a line in the sand and warn Trump not to cross it. In Trump v. Wilcox, a decision that otherwise endorsed the proposition that Trump can fire leaders of independent federal agencies that are supposed to enjoy a degree of job security, the Court signaled that Trump may not fire leaders of the Federal Reserve.
Admittedly, the Republican justices’ explanation of why Fed leaders are protected is gibberish. The Court said that “the 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” — whatever the hell that means.
One of the first major constitutional disputes in the United States involved a disagreement between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson over whether Congress could charter a national bank. But that dispute did not raise the question of whether the president could fire bank officials.
In any event, we’re about to find out if the Republican justices were serious about this rare and arbitrary limit they placed on Trump’s authority. Because Trump, being Trump, has decided to test it. Late on Monday, Trump announced that he will remove Lisa Cook, a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors. So Trump is doing the one thing that this Court has said he may not do.
While Cabinet secretaries and most other federal agencies’ leaders serve at the pleasure of the president, the Federal Reserve is one of several agencies led by multi-member boards whose members may only be removed “for cause” by the president. This is because the Fed is supposed to make technocratic decisions about US monetary policy without being influenced by partisan politics.
