A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing the government from removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, saying the administration hasn’t shown a legally valid “for cause” reason tied to her conduct while in office. The ruling keeps Cook—the first Black woman on the Fed board—in her role while the case proceeds. 

Why it matters: The Fed shapes mortgage rates, small-business borrowing costs, and job growth. If presidents could swap out governors over policy disagreements, markets would be impacted by politics, not data. That chaos hits Black households first and hardest: we’re disproportionately sensitive to interest-rate swings through credit access, debt servicing, and employment in rate-sensitive sectors. Protecting guardrails at the Fed protects community stability. (Cook will be at the September 16 policy meeting, where Wall Street expects the first rate cut since December.) 

William McNeil Jr., 22, is asking the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to review his February traffic stop arrest in Jacksonville, where video shows an officer breaking his driver’s-side window and punching him before pulling him from the car. Local prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges against the officers last month; McNeil later pleaded guilty to resisting an officer without violence and to driving with a suspended license. According to a news release shared with BET, his attorneys say the force used was excessive and are seeking federal intervention. 

Why it matters: Federal civil rights reviews are often the only venue where patterns of policing—not just a single incident—get scrutinized. For Black drivers, traffic stops remain a common flashpoint for escalating force with generational consequences: lost wages, court fees, health impacts, and community mistrust that lingers long after headlines fade.

Students at Georgetown, Howard, George Washington, and American University staged coordinated walkouts in Washington, D.C., protesting the federalization of local law enforcement and National Guard presence in the city. According to reports, lawmakers Pramila Jayapal and Ed Markey joined demonstrators at Georgetown. Organizers accused university leaders of bowing to federal pressure on DEI and student activism to protect funding. 

Why it matters: Campus policy debates are colliding with public-safety policy in the nation’s capital—a majority-Black city. Federal policing around HBCU and urban campuses heightens fears about profiling and suppressing student speech, while D.C. residents shoulder the reputational and economic costs of a militarized downtown.