In what will either clarify or redefine the boundaries of presidential power, the Supreme Court has granted certiorari and scheduled oral arguments in Trump v. Cook, a case which asks whether President Donald Trump has the authority to fire Lisa Cook, a sitting member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (Fed).

On the first day of his second term, President Trump issued Executive Order 14168, ordering every federal agency to strip self-attested gender identity from official records and to align markers with birth-assigned sex. Within 48 hours, the State Department froze adjudication of passport applications from transgender, intersex, and nonbinary Americans; some passports were returned with sex markers reset, displacing the prior self-designation regime (including the “X” option).

In what could have been the Supreme Court’s first meaningful engagement with a Trump-related appeal, Bessent v. Dellinger instead offered little judicial clarity, as the justices sidestepped substantive questions by holding the government’s application in abeyance, leaving broader legal issues unresolved. Hampton Dellinger was confirmed by the Senate to serve as the Special Counsel for the Office of Special Counsel on February 27, 2024, following a nomination from then-President Joe Biden. The Office of Special Counsel’s primary function is to protect governmental whistleblowers and safeguard against political corruption. On February 7, 2025, President Trump announced that he had fired Dellinger. Trump’s removal of Dellinger follows a familiar pattern of politically charged firings of government watchdogs, often without clear cause, undermining the independence of officials tasked with oversight. Dellinger sued the administration arguing that his firing violated 5 U.S.C § 1211(b), which states that the Special Counsel shall serve a 5 year term, and can be removed by the President “only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a temporary restraining order (TRO), which restrained President Trump from firing Dellinger, effectively reinstating Dellinger as Special Counsel for the duration of the TRO (14 days). The Department of Justice immediately appealed on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket.