The Supreme Court of the United States already dismissed two cases about President-elect Donald Trump’s alleged violations of the Emoluments Clauses, which safeguard against presidential corruption, but Fordham Law Professor Zephyr Teachout believes more lawsuits may be filed in the future.
Whether any contentious transaction moves forward in the next four years might depend on the details of the Trump Organization’s ethics white paper, including the plan to abstain from deals directly with foreign governments. If adopted, that prohibition could help the company contend with lawsuits based on the so-called foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts or payments from other governments.
At the end of Mr. Trump’s first term, several emoluments lawsuits were rendered moot, since he had left office, and were dismissed by the Supreme Court. But it is likely that new similar lawsuits will be filed again, lawyers involved in the effort said.
“It looks like Trump is planning to flagrantly violate key anti-corruption provisions of the Constitution again,” said Zephyr Teachout, a law professor at Fordham Law School, who served on the legal team for one of the emoluments lawsuits filed in 2017. “It would be untenable if there is not a significant challenge to that.”