Two high-level women are fighting back against US president Donald Trump’s political pressure to sack them from their roles.
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook has sued Trump over his attempt to fire her, and the Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez, is accusing the Trump administration of “weaponising public health” after the White House announced she’d been fired.
Both incidents have occurred within the past week, highlighting Trump’s political agenda amid criticism of the legality of these attempted firings.
Lisa Cook
Earlier this week, Trump said there was “sufficient reason” to believe Cook had made false statements on her mortgage, and cited constitutional powers he claims allow him to remove her from her position as Federal Reserve governor.
On Thursday, Cook asked the court to declare Trump’s firing order “unlawful and void”, having stated previously that “no cause exists under the law” to sack her.
Cook’s lawsuit against Trump could end up at the US Supreme Court and has set up a potential legal battle that could have implications for the US central bank’s autonomy.
The first Black woman to serve as governor, Cook is part of the board responsible for setting interest rates in the US. Meanwhile, Trump has put increasing pressure on the Fed over what he sees as an unwillingness to lower interest rates.
“This case challenges President Trump’s unprecedented and illegal attempt to remove Governor Cook from her position which, if allowed to occur, would be the first of its kind in the Board’s history,” Abbe Lowell, Cook’s attorney, wrote in the lawsuit.
“It would subvert the Federal Reserve Act … which explicitly requires a showing of ’cause’ for a Governor’s removal, which an unsubstantiated allegation about private mortgage applications submitted by Governor Cook prior to her Senate confirmation is not.”
Susan Monarez
Trump has also faced criticism for his administration’s attempted firing of the Director of the CDC, Susan Monarez, who has only been in the job for a month.
The White House fired Monarez after she clashed with the vaccine policies of Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai said Susan Monarez was fired for not being “aligned with the president’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again”.
Monarez’s lawyers Mark S Zaid and Abbe David Lowell have said her sacking was not legal and only Trump- not White House officials- could remove her.
Monarez was targeted for refusing to support “unscientific, reckless directives” and dismiss health experts, her attorneys said in a separate statement.
Her lawyers said as well that Monarez had chosen “protecting the public over serving a political agenda”.
At least three other senior CDC leaders have resigned from the agency, with some citing frustration over vaccine policy and the leadership of JFK Jr.
Earlier this month, employees of the CDC wrote an open letter accusing JFK Jr of fuelling violence towards healthcare workers with his anti-vaccine rhetoric.