WASHINGTON — A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction late Tuesday temporarily barring the Federal Reserve from removing Lisa Cook as a member of its board.

U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb wrote in a 49-page opinion that President Donald Trump “violated the Federal Reserve Act because (Cook’s) purported removal did not comply with the statute’s ‘for cause’ requirement” and that his attempts to remove Cook from the board “deprived her of procedural rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.”

Cobb added the case marks the first time in the Federal Reserve’s 111-year history that a president has sought to remove one of its members “for cause.”

The Federal Reserve Act doesn’t actually define what “for cause” entails, but Cobb wrote that reasons for firing under the law “are limited

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