Trump Can Try to Fire Lisa Cook. He’ll Lose.: Stephen L. Carter

President Donald Trump won’t win his tussle with Lisa Cook, the Fed governor he tried to fire Monday night. But I’m not sure winning is the point. More likely, this is just one more battle in the president’s war of attrition against the Federal Reserve and its Federal Open Market Committee.

Trump’s letter of dismissal rests on the criminal referral by the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, alleging that Cook made misstatements on one or more mortgage applications. Therefore, the president writes, he can fire her for “cause” (the language of the applicable federal statute).

This interpretation ...