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Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Sadly, It's a Lifetime Appointment

U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte of the District of Maryland issued a ruling today which denied dismissal of a silly lawsuit brought by the Attorney General of Maryland and a few others.  The plaintiffs contend that by having ownership interest in the Trump hotel in DC, the President is violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution (which bars the President receiving gifts from foreign countries or entities.)  The plaintiffs contend that if a foreigner stays in the hotel, it is a violation of this clause.  The same argument has already been rejected by a federal court in New York, and that decision is on appeal.  The Maryland case goes the other way.  It too will surely be appealed.

For more than two centuries, Presidents have had business interests, some more and some less.  All of those business interests were free to do business with foreigners and even foreign governments.  Suddenly now, the so called resistance is looking for bizarre ways to fight against Trump, so they come up with this loser of a theory. 

It's a disgrace that the judge actually ruled the way he did.  It is not, however a surprise.  Judge Messitte is a far left judicial activist who was appointed to the bench by Bill Clinton.  In 2014, he was hearing a case between the Washington Redskins football team and another party and, without being asked, Judge Messitte banned the used of the word "Redskins" in his courtroom.  Think about that.  The name used by millions of people could not be said in Messitte's courtroom because he thought it was offensive.  That is anything but impartial justice.  Messitte is just another far left judge.

The good news is that these cases will eventually go up on appeal.  Most likely the Supreme Court will ultimately have to rule on this question.  It's too bad that a hack of a federal judge had to inject his personal politics into a rather clear case.  Had Messitte actually followed the law rather than his prejudices, a lost of wasted time and effort could have been saved.

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