Supreme Court dismisses emoluments lawsuits against Trump as moot
By Harper Neidig - 01/25/21 10:37 AM EST
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a pair of emoluments lawsuits against former President Trump, ruling that the cases are moot now that he has left office.
The two lawsuits, filed by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the attorneys general for Washington, D.C. and Maryland, were part of a novel legal effort that alleged Trump violated the Constitution's emoluments clauses by continuing to own his business empire while in office.
Before Trump came into office, the courts had never considered the question of what the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses prohibited, as few presidents had sought to test their boundaries. But Trump held office while also retaining private business interests that were unprecedented in modern times.
Three major emoluments lawsuits were filed against Trump during his term alleging that his network of businesses allowed him to accept unconstitutional payments from foreign governments whose diplomats patronized his hotels, opening the president up to potential foreign influence.
A third case, brought by more than a hundred Democratic members of Congress, was rejected by the Supreme Court last year.
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https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/535668-supreme-court-dismisses-emoluments-lawsuits-against-trump-as-moot
