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The Domestic Emoluments Clause Returns To The Trump Presidential Library in Miami

The Trump Library will stand tall, but the plaintiffs have no standing.

Josh Blackman | 5.14.2026 5:33 PM

During the first Trump Administration, the federal courts got a crash course in the Emoluments Clauses. Shortly after Trump was sworn in, progressive groups brought suit in New York, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. They argued that foreign and state governments that patronized Trump properties were giving unconstitutional emoluments to President Trump. Seth Barrett Tillman and I filed a host of amicus briefs at the District Court, Circuit Court, and Supreme Court level. However, the plaintiffs never sought a preliminary injunction or any sort of expedited relief. Indeed, despite the fact that they claimed these cases were urgent and the fate of the Republic turned on stoping this foreign influence, the plaintiffs repeatedly requested extensions and continuances. At the end of the day, the clock ran out. By the time the case made it to the Supreme Court's merits docket, Trump was out of office, and the cases ended with a whimper.

Since Trump's second term began, I have waited with baited breath for suits based on the Emoluments Clause, as well as Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, our other scholarly........

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