The Supreme Court Isn’t Joining Trump’s War on the Fed

Even Justice Samuel Alito, who otherwise seemed to lean toward the administration’s view, seemed to take issue with how it had handled the matter. “No court has ever explored those facts,” he told Sauer. “Are the mortgage applications even in the record in this case?” Sauer replied that the “text of the [Trump] social media post that screenshots the mortgage applications is in the record.” In response, Alito observed that the purported investigation into wrongdoing by Cook had been done in a “very cursory manner.”

Since the court is hearing the case as an appeal of a preliminary injunction, Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked whether the court should give greater deference to the economic damage that could be wrought by a Trump victory. “Justice Sotomayor brought up the public interest here, and we have amicus briefs from economists who tell us that if we grant you your stay, that it could trigger a recession,” she asked. “How should we think about the public interest in a case like this?”

“I think the Court has to weigh that risk against the risk that there will be a permanent damage to the Federal Reserve’s credibility from allowing an officer, a governor, to remain in office who’s engaged in this kind of behavior before she came in office,” Sauer eventually replied. But that only led Barrett to question whether the seriousness of the alleged offense should play a role, as well. “If she were accused of murder or something like that,” she asked, “if we’re talking about something that was really an infamous crime, should we take the nature of the crime into account?”