She's cooked: Lisa Cook, one of seven Federal Reserve Board members, was fired "for cause" by President Donald Trump earlier this week for what he calls "deceitful and potentially criminal conduct." The claim is that she committed mortgage fraud by declaring two residences to be her primary (and thus tax-advantaged), purchased within a few weeks of each other—sloppy, and somewhat common, and also not something that's been proven as of now. Cook is suing. The rest of the Federal Reserve Board is left wondering how exactly they should handle this situation: Does Cook still have a job? How long will it take this lawsuit to wend its way through the courts? Do you adhere to Trump's dictates whenever they're issued? How legal is this for-cause firing anyway?
"Does 'for cause' require something more substantial than a mere allegation of wrongdoing, such as a formal charge, or a conviction, or even something else?" asks Reason's Damon Root in a great piece on the precedent the Supreme Court might lean on (Namely Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935) and Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (2020)). "Here's another question to ask: Is the mortgage fraud allegation that's been leveled against Cook merely a pretext designed to cover the fact that Trump is actually firing Cook for illegal political reasons?"
