THE SUPREME COURT ON Monday dismissed two emoluments cases involving former President Donald Trump, requesting that they be rendered as “moot” by the lower courts now that he has left office.
The justices tossed out Trump’s challenges to a pair of lawsuits alleging that he violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution by illegally profiting from a foreign or domestic government through his businesses while serving as president.
The pair of orders released Monday morning “vacated the judgment” and “remanded” the cases to the federal appeals courts in New York City and Richmond, Virginia, “with instructions to dismiss the case as moot.”
The foreign emoluments clause bans officeholders from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince of foreign State” without approval from Congress. The domestic emoluments clause specifically notes that a president “shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.”
The two challenges were filed by watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the attorneys general of the District of Columbia and Maryland. They specifically took aim at the former president’s profits from the Trump International Hotel in Washington, which is located less than a mile away from the White House.
The Supreme Court previously punted on other emoluments cases against Trump. In October, the justices kept intact a lower court ruling arguing that members of Congress don’t have the legal authority to bring up the case because they don’t represent a majority of both chambers of Congress. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut was the lead plaintiff in the challenge, which was backed by more than 200 members of Congress.
Trump left the White House on Wednesday morning for Palm Beach, Florida, hours before the inauguration of his successor, Joe Biden. Also Read: Other Countries Want Citizens to Upgrade Their Masks. The U.S. Just Wants People to Wear Them.
