February 19th, 2026

Is the Emoluments Clause Dead?

Law.com recently published a commentary by Frankfurt Kurnit Partner, Ronald C. Minkoff and Richard P. Swanson, president of the New York County Lawyers Association, examining the Emoluments Clause and the growing concern about its practical enforceability in light of recent meetings between President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. These concerns are heightened by the President’s extensive private business ties to Saudi interests, raising unprecedented questions about whether such relationships violate the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause. Minkoff and Swanson note that the clause has been rarely tested because no prior presidency has so extensively mixed personal business with foreign dealings. This situation prompts difficult questions about who, if anyone, could enforce the clause and whether impeachment is the only available remedy. They caution that the nation may now be confronting the possibility that “the Emoluments Clause, seemingly important on its face, [is] simply a dead letter.” Read our commentary on the Emoluments Clause.