The Federal Reserve, under pressure from President Donald Trump to cut interest rates and bend to his will, just got an important assist from the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Trump v. Cook, the justices took up the case involving Trump’s decision to terminate Lisa Cook, a member of the powerful policymaking Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. On June 29, 2026, Cook and the Fed prevailed. In a 5-4 opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court upheld a lower court’s decision to keep Cook in her role while her case proceeds on whether she was terminated “for cause.”

The high court also held that Trump didn’t meet the due process requirements for dismissing a board governor when he “fired” her via a social media post. Trump claimed Cook had committed mortgage fraud, even though she had not been found guilty of any wrongdoing.

As a scholar of employment law, I had expected the court to side with Cook to some degree. But other recent Supreme Court cases have gone the other way, protecting the president’s authority to fire other high-level government officials at will.

Same court, different opinions

The court’s Cook decision and its constraints on presidential power stand in contrast to its rulings regarding other federal agencies. On the same day, the conservative majority sided with Trump when it ruled in Trump v. Slaughter that a “for cause” provision limiting his right to fire the........

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