The president is in charge of the executive branch, not Congress and certainly not the bureaucracy. The Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a major victory Monday in his effort to bring independent federal agencies more directly under White House control, while stopping short of allowing him to immediately remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.
In a pair of decisions written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court drew a sharp distinction between the Federal Reserve and other independent agencies. The rulings left Cook in place for now, but cleared the way for Trump to remove officials from agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission without showing cause.
The split outcome underscored the court’s view that the Federal Reserve occupies a special place in the federal system because of its history, structure, and role in setting monetary policy. At the same time, the conservative majority continued its broader move away from statutory limits on the president’s authority to fire executive branch officials.
In Cook’s case, the court ruled 5-4 that Trump could not immediately remove her from the Federal Reserve Board while her legal challenge proceeds. The court’s liberal justices joined Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the majority.
Roberts rejected the administration’s argument that Trump’s decision to fire Cook for cause was beyond judicial review and that she could not remain in office while contesting her dismissal.
“To accept any of those arguments would in effect transform the Federal Reserve’s for-cause protection into at-will employment,” Roberts wrote.
He said such a result “would be out of step with the statute Congress enacted and our nation’s tradition of central banking protected from political interference.”
Cook welcomed the ruling, describing Trump’s action as “an attempt to remove me on a manufactured pretext because I refused to bow to political pressure and continued to set interest rates based only on what would best serve the American people.”
Trump had not publicly commented on the Cook ruling by Monday afternoon. The decision does not permanently bar him from seeking her removal. Roberts wrote that Cook is “entitled to notice and some opportunity to respond prior to her termination,” though he stressed that the process need not amount to a “full -blown judicial trial” or require a direct meeting with the president.
“The ultimate question of whether the president can remove Cook for cause will depend in part on the underlying facts,” Roberts wrote.
The White House took the ruling as a big win.
The court did not decide whether the allegations against Cook were true. Trump moved to fire her in late August 2025 after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who also serves as acting Director of National Intelligence, accused her of mortgage fraud. Cook has denied wrongdoing. Bank documents obtained by NBC News appeared to contradict the fraud allegation.
The Cook decision created a narrow Federal Reserve exception to the court’s broader skepticism toward congressional limits on presidential removal power. No previous president had attempted to fire a top Fed official, and global markets have long relied on the central bank’s insulation from direct political pressure.
That insulation has become a point of tension under Trump, who has repeatedly pressed for lower interest rates and criticized Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The Senate recently confirmed Kevin Warsh to replace Powell as chairman. Powell’s separate term as a member of the Board of Governors runs until 2028. Trump has also appointed adviser Stephen Miran as a Fed governor.
In the companion case involving Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the court ruled 6-3 along ideological lines to overturn Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the 1935 precedent that had upheld limits on the president’s power to remove FTC commissioners except for cause.
“Our Constitution creates three branches, but only one president,” Roberts wrote.
“Subordinates who exercise the president’s power are subject to removal by him. Then, and only then, can they remain accountable to the president, and the president to the people,” he continued.
The Slaughter ruling gives Trump far wider authority to remove officials from agencies Congress had designed to operate with some independence from direct presidential control. The court had already allowed Trump to fire officials without cause from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Surface Transportation Board, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Trump fired both Democratic FTC commissioners, Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, without cause in March 2025. Slaughter sued under the 1914 law that created the commission, which permits removal only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” A federal judge and the D.C. Circuit sided with her, relying on Humphrey’s Executor. Bedoya later withdrew from the case.
Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has pushed aggressively to restructure the federal government, including efforts to eliminate agencies, remove officials, and dismiss thousands of federal workers. Monday’s decisions give him significantly more authority to pursue that agenda across much of the administrative state, while leaving the Federal Reserve as a distinct institution with stronger protection from direct presidential control.
