Friday, February 7, 2020

DC Circuit Tosses Emoluments Lawsuit By Members Of Congress | Talking Points Memo

OTHERWISE: DC Circuit Tosses Emoluments Lawsuit By Members Of Congress | Talking Points Memo

If ever there were a political question a court wanted to avoid the Emoluments Clause case against Donald Trump is it.  Lacking a personal stake 215 members of Congress -  the entire Democratic House caucus (while in the minority) - challenged his blatant disregard of the Constitutional prohibition of profiting from foreign potentates.  As Kings, Presidents, Prime Ministers, and ordinary court suitors crowd the bars and halls of his pricey hotel next door the President who refuses to disclose his finances, rakes in the cash and basks in adulation and flattery.

 But in Blumenthal v. Trump the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, was having none of it.  The Members of Congress will have to win politically not in the courts.  The Justice Department has declared him immune from prosecution and in any event is led by a loyalist.  So like Brecht's judge in the Caucasian Chalk Circle, Trump opens court with the words "I receive". - gwc

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