Noah Feldman, Columnist

Constitutional Suit Against Trump Faces Hurdles

It's not clear the watchdog group challenging Trump hotels' acceptance of foreign money has a good enough reason to sue.

January 24, 2017 at 5:55 PM UTC

By Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

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The headline issue in the first lawsuit against President Donald Trump is whether it is a violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution for his hotels and properties to be paid by foreign governments. But if a court actually decides this tough question, that will already be an accomplishment for the watchdog organization that brought the suit and the distinguished lawyers and academics representing it.

First, they have to get past two legal hurdles just to have their arguments considered. Although they have strong arguments to make on both, a skeptical court could easily throw out the case before reaching its heart.