Top Harvard Economists Urge Supreme Court to Block Trump from Firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook

Nine Harvard economists, including former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers and former Council of Economic Advisers Chairs N. Gregory Mankiw and Jason Furman ’92, called on the Supreme Court to stop President Donald Trump from dismissing Federal Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook in a brief filed Thursday.

Trump said he had fired Cook over allegations that she made false statements on her applications for home mortgages, which opponents labeled an unprecedented attack on the Fed’s independence. But Cook said he had no basis to fire her and vowed to not resign, before launching a legal challenge that has wound its way to the Supreme Court. Cook still took part in the last Fed vote.

The letter was also signed by every living chair of the Federal Reserve, including Ben S. Bernanke ’75, Alan Greenspan, and Janet Yellen, who also served as Treasury Secretary. Other signatories were former Treasury secretaries Summers, Jacob J. Lew ’78, Henry M. Paulson, Robert E. Rubin ’60, and former International Monetary Fund chief economist Kenneth S. Rogoff. Former Fed governor Daniel K. Tarullo was also a signatory.

“Allowing the government to remove a member of the Board of Governors for the first time in the Nation’s history, while under the cloud of legal challenge, will erode public confidence in the Fed’s independence and threaten the long-term stability of our economy,” they wrote in the brief.

Since Trump announced Cook’s dismissal, economists have sounded alarms over what they see as a dangerous attempt by the president to exert undue influence over the Fed to force the bank to lower interest rates. Trump has repeatedly criticized the Fed for holding rates steady. The Fed, however, lowered rates by 25 basis points at its meeting last week.

The amicus brief represented a remarkable outpouring of support for Cook and Fed Chairman Jerome H. Powell from some of the most influential American economists of the last four decades. Trump has repeatedly threatened to fire Powell for refusing to yield to his demands that the central bank lower rates, though he backed off over the summer.

The brief argued that stripping Cook of her position would violate the Fed’s congressionally mandated independence and hinder its ability to ensure maximum employment and stable prices. The economists warned that infringing on the Fed’s independence could hurt economic outcomes, including a higher risk of default on the national debt and higher inflation.

“The risk of harm to the Federal Reserve’s longstanding reputation for independence—and the ensuing harm to the economy—more than justifies maintaining the status quo by keeping Governor Cook in her position while the legality of her removal is adjudicated,” the signatories wrote.

A judge blocked Trump from firing Cook in September as her suit makes its way through the courts. A federal appeals court panel later upheld the decision. Trump then asked the Supreme Court to suspend the rulings and allow him to dismiss Cook.

Trump’s lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to issue an emergency ruling on the case.

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.