National Review senior editor Charles C. W. Cooke, on today’s edition of The Editors, argued that, regardless of President Trump’s ability to fire Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, the institution as a whole is unconstitutional.

“I think that conservatives who draw a distinction between executive branch agencies that are supposed to be independent and the Fed are doing so for specious and often cowardly reasons,” he said.

“There are times when adopting an originalist reading of the Constitution yields results that you don’t happen to like,” Cooke said. He pointed out that while some on the left may claim that originalism is “just convenient” or that “it lines up with all our policy preferences,” it doesn’t actually line up “with all our policy preferences.

“Now, I believe two things simultaneously,” said Cooke. “One is that I don’t think that President Trump’s view of interest rates and monetary policy in general is correct. . . . I also think that the Federal Reserve works quite well. But I don’t think it’s constitutional, at least not as currently constructed. Now, one of those arguments I’m never going to win.

“I don’t think it’s constitutional because I don’t think that there is any enumerated power that provides for the creation of the Federal Reserve.”

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