Why the Emoluments-Clause Lawsuits Matter
Think tax returns, for starters.
It sounds like a law school exam question: Can partisan opponents sue the president for alleged violations of the foreign emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution?
But the recent cases seeking to test that question—Maryland and Washington, D.C., jointly filed one against Donald Trump on Monday, and congressional Democrats are expected to file another today—are anything but academic. The suits revive long-dormant anticorruption provisions in the Constitution, the main one of which forbids the president from accepting payments from foreign governments that might seek favors in return. If the judiciary allows them to move forward, the cases could cast badly needed sunlight on the murky workings of the Trump Organization.