167-180_GREWAL (DO NOT DELETE)
6/21/2019 12:15 PM
THE PURPOSES OF THE FOREIGN EMOLUMENTS CLAUSE AMANDEEP S. GREWAL† I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 167 II. DETERMINING PURPOSE ................................................................. 168 A. Overview of the Three Potential Approaches ......................... 168 1. Textual Approach .............................................................. 169 2. Strong Purposivist Approach ............................................ 169 3. Moderate Purposivist Approach ....................................... 170 B. Proper Approach .................................................................... 170 III. CONCLUSION .................................................................................. 179
I.
INTRODUCTION
On his first full business day in office, Donald Trump faced a constitutional challenge related to his presidency. A D.C. based advocacy group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), filed a lawsuit arguing that the President’s wide and complex building holdings established inevitable violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause.1 Other lawsuits soon followed, including one by around 200 members of Congress.2 My previous law review article, The Foreign Emoluments Clause and the Chief Executive,3 extensively examined the meaning of “emolument” † Joseph F. Rosenfield Scholar and Professor of Law, University of Iowa 1. Memorandum Decision and Order at 1, Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington v. Trump, 276 F. Supp. 3d 174, 179 (2017) (S.D.N.Y. 2017) (No. 17-Civ.-458-GBD); see also S.M., Profit and the Presidency: A Lawsuit Against Donald Trump’s Business Ties Heats Up, ECONOMIST: DEMOCRACY IN AM. (Aug. 7, 2017), https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2017/08/profit-and-presidency [https://perma.cc/NS9V-JQ6M] (describing the parties and background to the CREW v. Trump lawsuit). 2. Complaint at 17, Blumenthal v. Trump, No. 1:17-CV-01154, 2017 WL 2561946, at *17 (D.D.C. June 14, 2017); Ben Brady & Toluse Olorunnipa, Trump Sued Over Foreign Business Dealings by Democratic Lawmakers, BLOOMBERG (June 14, 2017, 5:32 AM), https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-14/nearly-200-democrats-to-sue-trump-overforeign-business-dealings [https://perma.cc/5YC9-7352] (describing the background and parties to the Blumenthal v. Trump lawsuit). 3. Amandeep S. Grewal, The Foreign Emoluments Clause and the Chief Executive, 102 MINN. L. REV. 639 (2017).
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