Anyone in the executive branch can be fired

Otherwise, the administrative state becomes a fourth branch of government, unmoored from political accountability.

- JOSH HAMMER

LISA COOK, a member of the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors who was appointed by President Biden, is fighting President Trump's effort to oust her.

ON MONDAY, President Trump moved to fire Lisa Cook, a Biden-nominated member of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.

He moved to fire Cook for “cause,” and that cause is clear enough: According to William Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Cook allegedly committed mortgage fraud by lying about her principal place of residence for purposes of securing more favorable interest rates — and then failed to report her rental income from the properties, to boot.

Trump's move is the first time a president has ever tried to fire a Fed governor for cause, and Trump’s usual detractors have criticized him for his latest perceived violation of institutional norms. But Trump has acted appropriately; he is fully within his constitutional and statutorily delegated authority to remove Cook — whether for “cause” or not.

Let’s return to first principles.

The modern administrative state operates as a fourth branch of government, unmoored from direct political accountability. Its very existence, to say nothing of its present metastasis, is in irreconcilable tension with the American founders’ vision of a clearly delineated tripartite separation of powers between Congress, the executive branch and the judiciary.