COURTS/EMOLUMENTS/LAWSUIT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Democratic and Republican-appointed judges clashed sharply Thursday [12-12-19] over a lawsuit claiming that President Donald Trump is violating the Constitution by profiting from the spending of foreign and state government officials at his luxury Washington hotel. A quartet of lawyers argued for nearly three hours over highly complex legal issues spurred by the suit the District of Columbia and Maryland governments filed over two years ago, accusing Trump of ignoring clauses in the Constitution prohibiting federal officials from supplementing their salaries with ‘emoluments’ from foreign powers or individual states. However, the judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals provided the real action Thursday through a series of pithy, blunt exchanges with one another over the implications of allowing the case to proceed.”
-Josh Gerstein, “‘This one’s a lemon’ vs. ‘Is he above the law?’: Judges spar over Trump emoluments case,” Politico, December 12, 2019 7:38 pm