Federal appeals court dismisses Democrats’ emoluments challenge for lack of standing News
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Federal appeals court dismisses Democrats’ emoluments challenge for lack of standing

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday dismissed an emoluments suit filed against President Donald Trump by Democratic lawmakers for lack of standing.

Individual Democratic members of Congress filed the complaint against the president in June 2017, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against him for his alleged violation of the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution. The Emoluments Clause requires congressional consent for a US president to accept foreign gifts, emoluments or titles of nobility.

The district court found that the members had standing to file the complaint, but upon review, the DC Circuit dismissed the suit for lack of standing. The court found that members of Congress did not have standing because they themselves were not harmed by the alleged actions of the president.

Because there were only a few members of Congress in the suit, and not the majority required to provide congressional consent, the court held they would not have been able to provide consent in the first place, so they were therefore not able to file suit against the alleged actions. The court did not address the alleged violation.

This is not the only suit against the president for alleged violations of the Emoluments Clause.

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