What Happens When the President Gets Served?

Given the extraordinary number of lawsuits filed every year, Americans are certainly no stranger to legal woes. However, the President of the United States being sued within days of entering office brings up an entirely different realm of controversy and confusion. So the question is, what happens when the President gets served?

CREW Sues President Trump

On a Monday in mid-January, the Citizens for Ethics in Washington, also known as CREW, officially began the process of suing President Donald Trump for “taking money from foreign governments through his business ventures,” according to Zephyr Teachout, a lawyer involved in the suit. Teachout went on to say, “The lawsuit is a response to an extraordinary situation in which the President of the United States is benefiting from business relationships with foreign countries. Needless to say, those countries have a deeply vested interest in presidential decisions regarding trade and military policy.”

Serving the President Papers

This new suit was filed in Manhattan as a federal case, since this is where Trump Organization is headquartered. It is unclear who delivered papers to Trump and who received them, but President Trump is most definitely aware of the lawsuit against him and has called the suit “without merit.”

However, CREW is basing its argument on the concept that President Trump is violating Article 1, Section 9, Clause 8 of the Constitution, which states that “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” This provides a very unique situation since the clause has never been interpreted or handled by the Supreme Court and a President has never had global financial connections quite like President Trump.

Though President Trump has often emphasized that he is exempt from having conflicts of interest due to his status as President, he will still be held to the same standards as any other citizen during the duration of this lawsuit. Only time will tell what happens!