Trump Hits a Roadblock at the Supreme Court

President Trump’s push to restore the constitutional balance of power appears to have reached a roadblock, at least in terms of the Federal Reserve, at the Supreme Court. In oral arguments today over the president’s attempt to fire a Fed board member, Lisa Cook, for “cause,” many of the justices struck a skeptical note. These concerns could reflect a misconception about the nature of the Fed, whose purported “independence” seems to concern the Nine.The justices did focus in part on the question of whether Governor Cook has been given due process. That’s a serious question deserving to be marked. Justice Samuel Alito expressed reservations about what he called the “hurried manner” of Mr. Trump’s effort to terminate Ms. Cook and the ensuing litigation. Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked the solicitor general “Why are you afraid of a hearing?” relating to Ms. Cook’s defense claims.These concerns are important but, in our view, separate from the high court’s support of Mr. Trump’s campaign to establish presidential authority over federal agencies. Many such agencies, like the Federal Trade Commission, were created by Democrats during the Progressive and New Deal eras. Yet these agencies were not immune from politics, and helped to advance liberal agendas and gave rise to a bureaucratic Deep State.At the FTC, Mr. Trump fired one board member, Rebecca Slaughter, to put his own stamp on the regulatory agency. When Ms. Slaughter’s case was before the Nine, the justices seemed likely to back the president’s effort to take control. That’s because, as the sole officer vested by the Constitution with the executive powers of the United States, he needs the ability to fire decision-makers so that he can, as he must, “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”The justices, too, in Slaughter seemed amenable to the idea that the creation of agencies like the FTC amounted to an unconstitutional delegation of power to the executive that properly belongs to the Congress. Correcting that tendency could mark a sea change for the federal leviathan, which for decades has waxed as its bureaucracy has swollen along with its regulatory ambitions. Greater presidential oversight ultimately means more accountability for the voters.Then again, too, the Congress could well decide to reclaim the authority that it delegated to the so-called “independent” agencies it established in the executive branch. In the case of the Federal Reserve, that could prove the wisest course. In the Framers’ vision, the government-run central bank is an anomaly. That’s in part because in the Constitution, the monetary powers of the federal government, like coining money, are assigned solely to Congress. That reflects the fact that the legislature was the most accountable and most political federal branch — and that politics is one way monetary decisions are arrived at. The choice of giving Congress the leading monetary role suggests that the Founders did not anticipate monetary matters being directed by the unelected, largely unaccountable, leadership of the Fed. Nor did the Framers intend the president to be setting interest rates or stabilizing the dollar.Yet the Fed’s track record on this head is hardly worth celebrating. A dollar was valued at a 20.67th of a gold ounce when the bank was established. Today it fetches about a 4,780th of an ounce. If the Nine ends up vindicating the Fed’s independence, it will signal the need for broader reform of America’s monetary policy to chart a course back to an honest dollar defined in specie. In that event, Congress would have a new chance to assert its constitutional role.

Trump Hits a Roadblock at the Supreme Court

Trump Hits a Roadblock at the Supreme Court

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