Accepting the 2026 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award in Boston on Sunday, former Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said that a single act of political interference in monetary policy could permanently destroy public trust in the central bank. The speech came as the Supreme Court weighs a ruling on President Trump’s attempt to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook last August; a district judge blocked the removal in September, and during January oral arguments justices from both wings signaled skepticism towards the administration’s position, with a final decision expected before the court’s summer recess in late June. Powell, who stepped down as chair last month but remains on the board of governors, did not name Trump or Cook, and previously described the Cook litigation as “perhaps the most important legal case in the Fed’s 113-year history.”