A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Federal Appeals Court has unanimously dismissed the emoluments case brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia against Donald Trump.
The challengers were arguing that Trump's profits from his downtown Washington hotel from foreign and state government officials are illegal, violating the emoluments clauses of the Constitution. These clauses are intended to prevent foreign governments from influencing presidents through corrupt means, like spending hundreds of thousands of dollars at businesses owned by said presidents. It seems textbook to the lay observer that Trump is up to his eyeballs in illegal emoluments, but the clauses have never been used before against a sitting president, so there you go.
The merits of the case were, however, not the issue upon which the three-judge panel ruled. The judges dismissed the case instead on standing, ruling that the "attorneys general lacked legal standing to bring the lawsuit alleging the president is violating the Constitution when his business accepts payments from state and foreign governments." The dismissal also brings to a halt the multiple subpoenas from Maryland and D.C. pending in the federal government and at the Trump Organization for the financial records of the hotel.
The attorneys general, Brian E. Frosh for Maryland and D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine, said they will appeal the ruling to the full 4th Circuit and will consider taking it all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. They would probably be helped by a parallel investigation and set of hearings into emoluments by the House of Representatives, should leadership there ever decide it’s worthy of investigation.