Zephyr Teachout was quoted in a New Yorker story that mentions her book Corruption in America in the context of Donald Trump’s impending presidency and the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
Zephyr Teachout, whose book “Corruption in America,” from 2014, tells the history of Franklin’s snuffbox, said that, far from being an obscure provision, the gift ban was part of “the animating spirit of the Constitutional Convention,” along with other core American legal concepts such as federalism and separation of powers. “It goes to the heart of the fears at the Convention,” Teachout, a law professor at Fordham University who also ran a primary challenge to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in 2014, said. “The framers were worried about foreign powers because they were so strong and we were so weak. They were worried about corruption overwhelming the new republic. The question was how do we protect against it?”