President Donald Trump has won two of the three lawsuits alleging he violated the Constitution by promoting his businesses, and likely will win the third, according to the Heritage Foundation’s analysis.
Two clauses in the Constitution state that the President of the United States cannot “accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever” from the head of a foreign state, and cannot receive “any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.”
The most recent lawsuit against Trump over the emoluments clause to be tossed out “alleged that, because government employees and foreign officials pay for services they receive from Trump’s businesses, that payment produces a constitutionally forbidden ‘present’ to the president.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky and GianCarlo Canaparo note in an op-ed for National Review that “Maryland and the District couldn’t explain how prohibiting the president from earning money from the hotel would stop government officials from going there. In other words, even if they had a viable legal claim, there is no possible remedy.”
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that “when plaintiffs before a court are unable to specify the relief they seek, one must wonder why they came to the court for relief in the first place.”
One lawsuit, filed by Democratic members of Congress, remains before federal Judge Emmet Sullivan.
Spakovsky and Canaparo conclude, “in light of the Fourth Circuit’s opinion, perhaps the president should seek another writ of mandamus in the D.C. Circuit to overrule what is clearly an erroneous decision by Judge Sullivan.”
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