WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a setback to President Donald Trump, rejecting his attempt to fire Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, while in a separate case giving him a freer hand to exert control over other hitherto independent federal agencies.Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscriptionGet exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.The two decisions, issued at the same time and both authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, together marked another example of the conservative-majority court pushing back on one aspect of Trump’s broad exertion of executive power while giving him the green light on another.Though Trump may not fire Cook for now, the court allowed him to remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter.In the latter case, the court overturned a key 1935 Supreme Court ruling called Humphrey’s Executor v.
United States, which upheld restrictions on the president’s power to fire FTC members.The court in effect created a Federal Reserve exception to its general view — long-favored by conservatives suspicious of what some term a federal bureaucratic “deep state” — that restrictions on the president’s power to fire members of federal agencies imposed by Congress were an unconstitutional restriction of executive authority.So, while Cook can remain in office for now, the court granted Trump free rein to continue firing members of agencies that were specifically set up by Congress to be free of political interference.
The court concluded that the Federal Reserve is different from other independent agencies, in part based on its unique structure and history.While the FTC ruling only directly affects Slaughter, whom Trump fired in March 2025, the logic applies to other agencies with similar restrictions on the president firing members without cause.The court has already allowed Trump to fire, without cause, members other agencies that regulate health, safety, labor and environm...