Supreme Court insulates Federal Reserve while backing Trump firing of agency leaders [View all]
Source: CNBC
Published Thu, May 22 2025 5:12 PM EDT | Updated Moments Ago
The Supreme Court on Thursday strongly suggested that Federal Reserve board members would have greater protection against being fired by a president in a ruling that, for now, allows President Donald Trump to fire two members of other federal agencies’ boards.
The Supreme Court in its ruling said, “We disagree” with arguments by Gwynne Wilcox and Cathy Harris that their legal challenges to their terminations “necessarily implicate the constitutionality of for-cause removal protections for members of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors or other members of the Federal Open Market Committee.” “The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States,” the majority ruling said.
The three liberal members of the court dissented from the decision by six conservative justices, which keeps the plaintiffs in the case off their boards as their lawsuit challenging their terminations is pending. While Thursday’s decision does not explicitly bar Trump — or any other president — from firing a Federal Reserve board member, it suggests that any effort by a president to do so would face strong resistance from the Supreme Court as currently constituted. Trump previously fired Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris from the Merit Systems Protection Board.
A federal district court judge in Washington, D.C., had enjoined Trump from removing both women from their respective boards. An appeals court later upheld that order. But in early April, the Supreme Court stayed those rulings while the case continued, meaning that Trump did not have to reinstate the women to their boards. That temporary order was formalized in Thursday’s opinion by the high court.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/22/supreme-court-federal-reserve-trump.html
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The Supreme Court on Thursday strongly suggested that Federal Reserve board members would have greater protection against being fired by a president in a ruling that for now allows President Donald Trump to fire two members of other federal agencies' boards.
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