{"id":178893,"date":"2018-07-25T18:49:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T23:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2018\/07\/25\/pass-the-popcorn-13\/"},"modified":"2018-07-25T18:49:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T23:49:00","slug":"pass-the-popcorn-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2018\/07\/25\/pass-the-popcorn-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Pass the Popcorn"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I have been arguing for 9 years that there is an anti-corruption principle embedded in the Constitution. Today, Judge Peter J. Messitte adopted that principle writing “As Professor Teachout has noted, ‘corruption, in the American tradition, does not just include blatant bribes..”<\/div>\n

\u2014 Zephyr Teachout (@ZephyrTeachout) July 25, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a happy constitutional scholar<\/i><\/div>\n

A judge has ruled that the emoluments lawsuit against Donald Trump can proceed<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected President Trump\u2019s latest effort to stop a lawsuit that alleges Trump is violating the Constitution by continuing to do business with foreign governments. <\/p>\n

The ruling<\/a>, from U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte in Greenbelt, Md., will allow the plaintiffs \u2014 the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia \u2014 to proceed with their case, which says Trump has violated little-used anti-corruption clauses in the Constitution known as emoluments clauses. <\/p>\n

This ruling appeared to mark the first time a federal judge had interpreted those constitutional provisions and applied their restrictions to a sitting president. <\/p>\n

If the ruling stands, it could bring unprecedented scrutiny to Trump\u2019s businesses \u2014 which have sought to keep their transactions with foreign states private, even as their owner sits in the Oval Office. <\/p>\n

Messitte\u2019s 52-page opinion said that, in the modern context, the Constitution\u2019s ban on emoluments could apply to Trump \u2014 and that it could cover any business transactions with foreign governments where Trump derived a \u201cprofit, gain or advantage.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes profits from private transactions, even those involving services given at fair market value,\u201d Messitte wrote.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am intensely amused by this, though I am not as over the moon about this as Zephyr Teachout,who has maintained that anti-corruption is actually a prominent foundation of the US Constitution.<\/p>\n

It will be fun to watch Donald Trump squirm over this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been arguing for 9 years that there is an anti-corruption principle embedded in the Constitution. Today, Judge Peter J. Messitte adopted that principle writing “As Professor Teachout has noted, ‘corruption, in the American tradition, does not just include blatant bribes..” \u2014 Zephyr Teachout (@ZephyrTeachout) July 25, 2018 This is a happy constitutional scholar …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[499,407,374,486],"class_list":["post-178893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-constitution","tag-justice","tag-politics","tag-schadenfreude"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}