The US supreme court has blocked Donald Trump from sacking Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, even as the court ruled the president could fire top officials at federal agencies.The 5-4 decision on Monday marks the top court’s latest broadside against Trump’s administration, after ruling earlier this year that the president had no authority to use emergency powers to impose tariffs.Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that Congress limited the president’s power to remove Fed governors for “good reason” – to preserve the independence of the central bank.Roberts said that allowing Trump to remove Cook would open the door for “the President to remove a member of the Federal Reserve at any time, for any reason, without any notice before, and without any judicial check after”.Monday’s opinion quashes the first attempt by a US president to remove a Fed governor – a move that critics had warned would have eroded the central bank’s independence.However, the top US court on Monday also cleared the way for Trump to fire a Federal Trade Commission member without cause, a move that will hand the White House power to exert greater control over independent agencies. The justices ruled 6-3 that Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic commissioner who was dismissed last year, may be removed by the president.The supreme court’s ruling on the Fed governor comes after the US Justice Department in April dropped a criminal probe into former Fed chief Jay Powell, which was seen by many investors and economists as an attempt by Trump’s government to force the central bank to reduce borrowing costs.The DoJ relented after a Republican lawmaker threatened to hold up Kevin Warsh’s nomination as Fed chair unless prosecutors dropped the probe of Powell. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026