“Some misgivings about the Foreign Emoluments Clause arguments”

Will Baude:

Even if you are satisfied that Trump is likely to violate one of the emoluments clauses, the arguments are technical, and the answers are not completely obvious. To argue against Trump’s behavior on those grounds is, I fear, to get sucked into a trap where the arguments are unlikely to resonate or accomplish their aims. (I think we have seen this in many other areas of over-constitutionalized law as well.)

The more urgent and more serious question is how the American people do and should feel about the president’s business interests. The emoluments clauses are not the most relevant thing to that inquiry, and maybe not the best way to frame it.

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