The Supreme Court has already expanded President Donald Trump’s authority in a string of emergency rulings, but he’s signaling in his firing of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and other issues likely headed to the court that he continues to seek broader powers for the executive branch.

The cases could serve as major tests of how much further the nation’s high court is willing to go to bless the president’s assertion of executive authority. They differ from previous showdowns because of the sheer magnitude of the authority Trump is seeking to wield and because he wants greater control over powers the Constitution ascribes to another branch of government……

The high court has already signaled openness to broad presidential authority to replace some heads of independent agencies.

The justices handed Trump a major victory in May when they allowed him to remove the leaders of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board while legal challenges play out over their firings. Trump gave no reasons for the dismissals.

The court’s conservative majority ruled the Constitution vests all executive power in the president, so Trump could fire the agency heads “without cause” even though Congress set up the agencies to be insulated from political interference……

The legal battle over Cook’s firing is likely to turn on how the courts interpret “for cause” — something not defined in the law creating the Fed and has never been litigated before……

Lauren Bateman, an attorney for plaintiffs in the foreign aid case, contends it was always the administration’s intent “to run out the clock and allow those funds to expire” against the wishes of Congress.

“The administration’s affronts to the rule of law are staggering — and all to withhold aid from the most vulnerable people in the world,”

Justin Jouvenal,