WASHINGTON – A federal judge asked lawyers for President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to submit more arguments in the dispute about the president saying he fired her, because the case is unprecedented.

Cook's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, had asked U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb to temporarily block the firing while the case is being litigated. The judge didn't respond directly, but asked for more arguments to flesh out the unique case.

“This case obviously raises some important questions that may be of first impression, especially as it relates to this board," U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb said during a two-hour hearing Aug. 29. "I certainly don’t want the parties to not have time to make the arguments that they need to make."

Cobb said she was happy to set an anticipated schedule for when she'll decide the case. The next landmark is for Lowell to file a written response to the government's arguments by Sept. 2.

Trump announced Aug. 25 that he fired Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud. But when Congress created the Fed in 1913, lawmakers decided members of the seven-person board of governors who set interest rates could only be removed for “cause,” meaning a good reason.

Cook hasn’t been charged with a crime. Cobb is grappling with whether Cook being fired before the lawsuit is resolved would hurt her irreparably. Lowell argued that leaving Cook in limbo means she doesn't know if she could be removed from the Fed's offices, have her electronics turned off and be barred from future meetings.

“If she has the ability to carry out her constitutional function, if she has the ability to do her job as a governor – if nobody is locking her out of her office, nobody is taking her salary away, if nobody is preventing her from being a governor – then we will conform to a schedule,” Lowell said.

The Fed and its chairman, Jerome Powell, filed a document stating that the board didn’t take a position on Cook’s removal and said it would abide by any court ruling. But the Fed urged the court to rule promptly “to remove the existing cloud of uncertainty.”

The Fed is scheduled to meet next on Sept. 16 and 17. But government lawyers said those dates are beyond the customary 14-day limit for a court order temporarily blocking a policy.

Cook is accused of saying on mortgage documents that houses in Michigan and Georgia would each be her "primary residence." William Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, urged the Justice Department to investigate.

Trump contends that because Cook hasn't offered any defense against the accusation in public or private, she has lost his confidence.

"The President publicized this referral, and made clear that he viewed this deceptive and potentially criminal conduct as grounds for termination," government lawyers said in a court filing.

Yaakov Roth, a Justice Department lawyer, said Trump cited his reason for removing Cook and that courts have little role in reviewing a president's discretionary choices.

"That sounds to me like the epitome of a discretionary determination, and that’s when the president’s power is at his apex," Roth said.

Appeals courts and the Supreme Court supported Trump's removal of workers and agency officials nine times since January, according to government lawyers.

Trump's move comes after he repeatedly criticized Powell for not lowering interest rates faster, so as to spur housing and the economy. Trump contends he has the power to fire anyone in the executive branch. Vice President JD Vance repeated that argument in an interview with USA TODAY.

But critics said removing Cook would hurt the Fed's reputation for independence from politics. Governors are appointed to 14-year terms. The dollar's value has declined against the currencies of other countries since Trump's announcement.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Judge grapples with whether Trump was justified in firing Lisa Cook from Fed

Reporting by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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