Supreme Court Dismisses Lawsuit Accusing Trump of 'Violating the Constitution'
The legal battle highlighted the Emoluments Clause
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The Supreme Court has dismissed lawsuits alleging that President Donald Trump violated the Constitution by accepting gifts from foreign officials.
The legal battle highlighted the Emoluments Clause, which forbids government officials from accepting gifts while in office.
The lawsuit alleges Trump's business received profits from foreign officials while he served as president.
But justices threw the cases back to the lower courts with instructions to dismiss the legal battles as moot.
The news comes days after Trump left office and is no longer a government official.
One such lawsuit was brought by the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
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Another was brought by the state of Maryland and Washington.
Attorney general for the District of Columbia, Karl A. Racine, and Brian E. Frosh, the attorney general of Maryland, claimed the high court dismissed it as moot because Trump is no longer president.
“We are proud that because of our case, a court ruled on the meaning of ‘emoluments’ for the first time in American history, finding that the Constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting almost anything of value from foreign or domestic governments,” they said.
The lawsuit was focused on the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, noting that “officials of a number of foreign and state governments have patronized the Hotel, and that ‘the President’s receipt of benefits from these sources violates both the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses.’ ”
The CREW lawsuit was filed on behalf of hotels that argued they suffered a competitive disadvantage as foreign officials opted for Trump's hotel.
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Trump had challenged both lawsuits, arguing there was no sufficient injury suffered by the plaintiffs in either challenge.
Last week, Democratic House Financial Services Committee Chair Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) said she is continuing investigations into Trump’s finances.
During an interview on MSNBC’s “Live," Waters said, "we have not stopped."
"We will continue," she declared.
"We have some subpoenas that we have issued recently," Waters added.
"We will continue our work."
"I’m very pleased that I think we’re going to have excellent cooperation from Deutsche Bank, who have made their own decisions about not dealing with him anymore as many financial institutions have."
"We are going to continue our work.”
