Supreme Court Allows Lisa Cook to Stay on Fed

The Supreme Court will allow Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to remain in her position for now after it scheduled oral arguments in President Donald Trump‘s bid to fire her for January 2026.

The Trump administration asked the high court to allow Cook to be fired while the case proceeds in lower courts, but instead, the justices, in an unsigned order on Wednesday, said they will hold off on weighing the petition until they have held full oral arguments on the matter early next year. The short order on Wednesday did not elaborate on the reasoning but ordered the court’s clerk to establish a briefing schedule.

The Supreme Court’s order means Cook has earned an interim victory and will continue, for now, in her role as a Fed governor, unlike other independent agency heads whom the court has allowed to be fired while litigation proceeds.

The justices have received a trio of cases on the emergency docket in recent months from the Trump administration seeking the interim removal of independent agency heads pending litigation, and the justices have granted the stay in all three instances, with the high court electing to take the third case for oral arguments in December.

The Supreme Court has made a distinction between independent agencies and the Fed regarding the firing of agency heads without cause, however, noting in a previous order that the Fed 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 December arguments in Trump v. Slaughter will center on the case of the president firing Federal Trade Commission commissioner Rebecca Slaughter without cause and whether he can lawfully do so, while the Cook case, now set for January, will look at whether the cause cited by the Trump administration is sufficient to remove Cook from her position.

Cook has been accused by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte of mortgage fraud, which Trump cited as cause to fire her. She challenged Trump’s firing in federal court, winning an injunction reinstating her temporarily, which will now hold at least through the oral arguments before the Supreme Court in January.

The case marks the first oral arguments slated for January 2026 in the court’s term, which begins Monday with a pair of oral arguments and is expected to conclude with the final set of rulings issued in late June 2026.

The Trump administration will have multiple cases on the Supreme Court’s merits docket for the term, including one regarding Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, along with the Slaughter and Cook cases. The administration asked the high court late last week to consider taking up its appeal of its birthright citizenship order, which could be another consequential Trump case the justices hear.