September 16, 2025
No president has fired a sitting Federal Reserve governor in the independent agency’s 112-year history.
Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor whom President Donald Trump recently tried to fire, can keep her job for now. An appeals court ruled Cook can remain a governor on Sept. 15 ahead of a key vote on interest rates that begins Tuesday.
As CBS News reports, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decided 2-1 in declining to grant the Trump administration’s emergency relief that would have allowed Trump to remove Cook. The court ruled that Cook’s due process rights were violated because the administration did not give her a formal opportunity to respond to the charges.
However, even with the appeals court ruling, this isn’t the end of the legal fight between the Trump administration and Cook. Trump is expected to turn to the Supreme Court in an unprecedented move to unseat Cook. Meanwhile, Cook is suing the administration to block her firing.
As the Associated Press reports, the Fed’s seven-member governing board was designed to be largely independent. No president has fired a sitting Fed governor in the agency’s 112-year history.
Trump Moves To Oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook Over’ Mortgage Fraud’
Trump moved to oust Cook from the Fed’s Board of Governors last month over allegations of mortgage fraud for claiming two properties as “primary residences” in July 2021, before joining the board. Such claims could lead to a lower mortgage rate and smaller down payment than if one of them were declared as a rental property or second home. Cook denies all wrongdoing.
According to the Federal Reserve website, Cook took office as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on May 23, 2022, to fill an unexpired term that ended on Jan. 31, 2024. She was reappointed and sworn into the position on Sept. 13, 2023, for a term ending Jan. 21, 2038.
Before serving on the board, she was a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University. She served as the director of the American Economic Association Summer Training Program from 2018 to 2021 and also worked as a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Currently, Cook is the only Black woman serving as a governor of the Federal Reserve.
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