President Trump is asking the Supreme Court to allow him to remove a Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, from her post as the appeal of her dismissal plays out. Two lower courts have blocked the president from doing so. 

Mr. Trump and his administration have accused Ms. Cook of committing mortgage fraud, citing two documents related to two separate properties where Ms. Cook allegedly claimed both homes as primary residences. Documents reviewed by Reuters, however, reportedly show that she claimed one residence as a vacation home and the other as her primary residence. 

A federal district court judge has temporarily blocked Mr. Trump from removing Ms. Cook as she hears the merits of the case. An appellate court upheld that decision, and now Mr. Trump is asking the Supreme Court to remove Ms. Cook from her post while the legal process plays out. 

The Department of Justice, in its appeal to the Supreme Court, accuses the lower court jurists of committing “improper judicial interference with the President’s removal authority.”

The DOJ argues that Ms. Cook’s contention and the lower court’s finding that she is entitled to civil service protections is not reconcilable with the president’s removal authority. 

“This theory is untenable and would wreak havoc on sensitive presidential decision-making,” the attorneys write. “The lower court’s due-process theory would invite judicial micromanagement of the President’s exercise of his core Article II powers — even where, as here, courts have no authority to review the substance of the President’s ultimate decision.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that it would not remove Ms. Cook because the court believes that she has not been given the proper amount of time to respond to the presidency’s accusations. 

“In this court, the government does not dispute that it failed to provide Cook with even minimal process — that is, notice of the allegation against her and a meaningful opportunity to respond — before she was purportedly removed,” Judge Brad Garcia, who was nominated to the bench by President Biden, wrote for the majority. 

“The district court thus preliminarily enjoined Cook’s removal based, in part, on its conclusion that her removal likely violated the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. That conclusion is correct,” the appeals court found. 

Citing Mr. Trump’s vast powers as president, justice department lawyers argued that judges had no right to review his firing of Ms. Cook at all. In their appeal to the appellate court from the district court, government lawyers argued that federal statute is vague enough to allow Mr. Trump to remove Ms. Cook, so long as he identifies some reason other than a policy disagreement.