South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has joined 22 other states in submitting a friend-of-the-court brief supporting President Donald Trump’s authority to remove Lisa Cook from her position as Governor of the Federal Reserve Board.
“I’m proud to stand with President Trump in this case. I think the Constitution and federal law give him the authority to fire her in these circumstances, and he is on solid ground in attempting to fire her for cause. At the end of the day, the President gets to exercise executive power—not unelected bureaucrats,” Attorney General Wilson said.
The move comes after an October Supreme Court decision prevented President Trump from immediately removing Cook, with arguments scheduled for January. The group of attorneys general and the Arizona Legislature have asked the Court to permit Cook’s removal.
President Trump contends that he can dismiss Cook for cause, alleging she falsified records to obtain better mortgage terms prior to joining the Federal Reserve Board in 2022.
In their legal filing, the states argue that restrictions on presidential authority under the Federal Reserve Act should be interpreted narrowly so as not to interfere with executive powers outlined in Article II of the Constitution. They wrote: “Any such restriction on the President’s authority to remove should be construed as narrowly as possible to avoid the constitutional doubts raised by interference with the President’s presumptive power to remove executive officers under Article II, particularly principal officers. On top of that, the history of how courts, including this Court, have understood ‘for cause’ removal restrictions counsels strongly against the judiciary’s second-guessing the decision of the President to remove Cook.”
The attorneys general joining Wilson represent Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. The Arizona Legislature also signed onto the brief.
