Supreme Court Dismisses Trump Emolument Cases - Forbes

bulukuci.blogspot.com

Topline

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed two cases against former President Donald Trump Monday that alleged the president violated the Emoluments Clause by illegally profiting off the presidency, saying the cases are now moot as Trump has left the White House.

Key Facts

Article I of the U.S. Constitution stipulates presidents and other officials cannot profit off their office, stating they cannot “accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State,” and presidents cannot “receive...any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.”

Ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued Trump on behalf of hospitality workers who believe they suffered because of Trump’s presidency, alleging foreign and domestic officials patronized Trump Organization businesses to curry favor with the president instead of their businesses.

The District of Columbia and Maryland had also sued Trump, alleging his continued stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. violated the Emoluments Clause.

The Supreme Court sent both cases back to lower courts Monday, directing them to dismiss the cases as moot.

The entities suing Trump all agreed the case became moot once Trump left office, with CREW previously writing in a court filing that the Supreme Court should deny the case because after Inauguration Day, “there will be no further relief that any court can grant on the plaintiffs’ claims, and no basis to further litigate the question the government asks this Court to consider.”

Crucial Quote

“This important litigation made the American people aware for four years of the pervasive corruption that came from a president maintaining a global business and taking benefits and payments from foreign and domestic governments,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement Monday. “Only Trump losing the presidency and leaving office ended these corrupt constitutional violations stopped these groundbreaking lawsuits.”

Key Background

Trump was widely criticized for allegedly using his office for his own financial gain during his presidency, taking numerous trips to his own properties at taxpayer expense and attracting domestic and foreign politicians to his D.C. hotel. The Washington Post estimates Trump billed the federal government at least $2.5 million for stays at his properties while in office, and ProPublica calculated that political campaigns and committees spent a combined $21.8 million at Trump properties in the 2016, 2018 and 2020 election cycles.

What To Watch For

There are still a number of pending court cases involving Trump, including pending litigation at the Supreme Court concerning Trump’s tax returns and now-defunct Twitter account. BuzzFeed News reports the new Biden administration now faces a “legal mess” in dealing with the myriad lawsuits left behind at the Justice Department by the Trump administration—including many that deal with Trump’s executive power—which will not be entirely possible to simply dismiss. “Your first instinct as a new political [appointee] is just to say, ‘Forget it, we were wrong,’ and get rid of that litigation, and you are immediately hit with the career people who say, ‘You can’t do that,’” Ian Gershengorn, who led the Justice Department’s Federal Programs Branch under President Barack Obama, told BuzzFeed.