Trump v. Cook: Government's Application Is Denied, Fed Governor Lisa Cook Stays in Office

On June 29, 2026 (decision date) the Supreme Court decided Trump v. Cook (No. 25A312) and denied the Government’s application for a stay. The Government had asked the Court to stay a district-court preliminary injunction that blocked President Trump’s August 2025 attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Argument date: January 21, 2026 (2026-01-21–scotus-oral-argument-trump-v-cook). Cook stays in office while the litigation continues, and the merits go back to the lower courts.

This is an emergency-docket order, not a merits ruling. The Court says so itself: “Although this extraordinary case arises on the Court’s interim docket”, the Court had amici and oral argument. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion of the Court, and Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh and Jackson joined him. Thomas, Alito (joined by Gorsuch) and Barrett each dissented.

What it held. The syllabus finds the Government unlikely to prevail: “Acceptance of the Government’s position would in effect transform the Federal Reserve’s for-cause protection into at-will employment.” On what “cause” means, it says “Nothing could be more corrosive of the independence that Congress sought to preserve.” But the Court rests the decision on a narrower point: “The Court decides this application on the narrow ground that the President failed to afford Cook the procedural protections to which she was entitled by statute.” Its line for what comes next: “Only after Cook has had the opportunity to respond to the charges made against her” may a final decision be made. That procedural reading is the hook for the White House committee-of-inquiry hearing set up in October (2026-10-07–trump-memo-committee-of-inquiry-cook-removal-white-house-hearing).

Same day, same Chief Justice, a different rule for every other agency. The Court decided the merits case Trump v. Slaughter the same day, where it wrote “If anything more is left of Humphrey’s, we overrule it.” (2026-06-29–scotus-overturns-humphreys-executor-presidential-firing-power). Cook is the Federal Reserve exception to that rule, grounded in the Fed’s history and the statute rather than in a general test.