Summary:
In his second term as President, Donald J. Trump has set about remaking the federal government.Recently the President sought to terminate Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, asserting that she allegedly engaged in mortgage fraud and that this alleged misconduct constituted legal “cause” for her removal. Cook has denied the allegations and sued to retain her position. Thus far, a federal district court has issued a preliminary injunction preventing her removal. The Trump administration has filed a notice of appeal.
Cook’s case raises a number of fascinating legal questions: Could the alleged mortgage fraud, which is claimed to have occurred prior to her appointment to the Federal Reserve, constitute “cause” for termination? The district court said no. Cook also asserted that her termination was procedurally improper. The district court indicated its agreement, stating that the “removal also likely violated Cook’s procedural rights under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.” As Cook’s case proceeds through the legal system, federal courts, including possibly the Supreme Court, will have to address whether her claims are justiciable – that is, whether they are capable of being decided by a court. Beau J. Baumann, Ph.D. in Law candidate at Yale and former Justice Department attorney, discusses these issues with Associate Dean Rodger Citron.
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Learn more about Beau J. Baumann:
Beau J. Baumann is a Ph.D. in Law candidate at Yale. His research is focused at the intersection of administrative law and legislation. His scholarship describes how institutional developments in Congress and ideas about congressional decline have affected administrative law doctrine. His work has been published in the Georgetown Law Journal, the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Pace Law Review, and the online editions of the Notre Dame and University of Pennsylvania Law Reviews. His research at Yale is focused on the rise of the “congressional bureaucracy” and how congressional bureaucrats influenced the Progressive Era and the New Deal. Prior to joining Yale, Beau worked as an appellate attorney at the Department of Justice. In that capacity, he argued Garcia-Aranda v. Garland, which resulted in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ adoption of the nexus standard from Matter of L-E-A-I. Beau clerked for Judge J. Campbell Barker of the Federal District Court of the Eastern District of Texas. He received his J.D. from Cornell Law School and his undergraduate degree in Government from the University
of Texas at Austin.
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