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Judge Emmet Sullivan, Denied in Part the Government's Motion to Dismiss Our Lawsuit Against the President, for Violating the Foreign Emoluments Clause

10/01/18
Congressman Danny K. Davis, one of the nearly 200 Members of Congress who are seeking to hold President Donald Trump accountable to the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, learned on Friday that Judge Emmet Sullivan,  DENIED in part the government's motion to dismiss our lawsuit against the President, finding that we have standing to sue the President for violating the Foreign Emoluments Clause. 
 
According to the Constitutional Accountability Center:
 
To establish standing, we had to demonstrate there is (1) an injury (2) caused by the challenged behavior and (3) a likelihood that the injury could be remedied by the court. Judge Sullivan held that by accepting foreign emoluments without the consent of Congress, President Trump has injured each Congressional plaintiff by denying them a voting opportunity to which the Constitution entitles them. Furthermore, there is no adequate legislative remedy for the plaintiffs to take and must therefore rely on the court for redress, which the court is capable of resolving. 
 
Attached is Judge Sullivan's opinion in full, but here are a few choice quotes:
• "First, in asking this Court to accept the proposition that legislation on the emoluments issue would be an adequate remedy, the President asks this Court to ignore this constitutional clause. The Court may not do so."
• "[The President's] failure to explain [why legislation on the emoluments issue would prevent him from accepting prohibited foreign emoluments] is especially problematic given that the Constitution itself has not prevented him from allegedly accepting them."
• "... if these plaintiffs do not have standing to bring their claims to address their alleged injury, it is unlikely that another plaintiff would, rendering the Clause unenforceable against the President except via impeachment. As explained, impeachment is an inadequate remedy".
 
Today’s ruling makes it possible to hold President Trump accountable for the full range of his Foreign Emoluments Clause violations—not only those connected with the Trump Hotel in D.C., but also those connected with Trump properties and business ventures elsewhere in the country and abroad.
 
Next, we will have to return to court to argue the merits of our claim--the ruling on the government's motion to dismiss is limited to standing--but this is an important hurdle we had to overcome, and we did! We are fully briefed on the merits, but Judge Sullivan might ask for further briefing. However, we expect the next step will be to argue the merits of our claim before Judge Sullivan. Once we are successful in that argument, we move on to discovery.

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