The conventional approach to testing whether a president can fire a federal official is to fire one, wait for the lawsuit, and see what the Supreme Court says. Trump has apparently decided that doing two simultaneously is either more efficient or simply the way he approaches most things that involve a process.
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter is an FTC commissioner Trump fired. She sued. Lisa Cook is a Federal Reserve governor Trump fired. She sued. Both cases are now before the Supreme Court in the same term. Slaughter’s case is testing 90 years of precedent protecting independent agency commissioners from at-will removal. Cook’s case is testing whether “Fed independence” is a real thing or a decorative phrase on a wall that the president can take down when he is annoyed about interest rates.
Cook’s path here requires some tracing. Trump fired her. He fired her after Bill Pulte, then running the Federal Housing Finance Agency, recommended she be investigated for mortgage fraud. The investigation found nothing. Cook was fired anyway. Pulte was subsequently made acting Director of National Intelligence, because recommending a false investigation that got someone fired is, in this administration, a credential. The man who weaponized a housing agency against a central banker is now running the CIA and NSA. The central banker is suing. The Supreme Court is deciding whether any of this was legal.
Legal scholars are predicting the Court will split the difference: give Trump the FTC, protect the Fed, satisfy nobody completely. This is the Court’s preferred outcome in cases where the principle is clear but the politics are inconvenient, which is most cases now.
The lawyers keep noting that whatever power the Court gives Trump over federal appointments also goes to the next president. The administration keeps not mentioning this.
When the test case for presidential firing power involves the man who triggered one of the firings now running the intelligence agencies, what exactly is being tested?
Sources
Fox News: Trump’s firing power faces twin Supreme Court tests
