News Blog C10-2: Will President Trump be Sued?

Starting Saturday January 21, 2017 President Trump was violating the Constitution but receiving payments from foreign leaders to stay at the Trump hotel. The New York Times wrote an article addressing the situation and about a possible law suit to follow. President Trump is not allowed to receive any type of payments from foreign leaders. The reason that the Founding Fathers wrote this is because they did want our elected leader to be accepting bribes. The Supreme Court can address this situation in two ways. The first is by strict interpretations. Meaning that Justices Scalia and Thomas would say that President Trump is violation the constitution because it clearly states that elected officials may not revise money from foreign leaders. Another way the Supreme Court can also look at it is but the Founding Fathers intent. The intent was that we did want our elected officials to be bribed because then they would not be public servants to the American population rather than other countries. There is a couple interesting aspects to this case and one of them is who has standing. Standing is what allows the plaintiff to sue. In this case the American population has standing but how would that be tried in court? The other very interesting aspect of this case is that if President Trump is found that he has violated the Constitution many wonder what will be his punishment? Impeachment can be one of them but with the Republicans controlling the House and Senate getting two thirds to agree will be very hard.