The United States Constitution is of course not perfect.
It's full of anachronisms, elitism, and, yes, even racism.
Just look at the "three-fifths" clause contained in Article I, section two, for example.
Look at Article II, section one explaining the electoral college.
And if only more knew about how the Second Amendment got in there...
But within that sacrosanct founding document, there are also testaments to its framers' sagacity and circumspection.
Some might argue the Constitution's emoluments clause, a provision to prevent foreign governments' bribery of federal officials, is hyperbolic.
James Madison et al., however, had enough foresight to imagine a future President of the United States succumbing to a foreign government's graft in an attempt to curry undue favor.
That prediction, as we know, came to fruition on January 20, 2017 with the inauguration of Donald J. Trump.
By now it's no surprise Trump retains ownership of his company as president despite insisting before being elected he was transferring business assets to a blind trust his sons Eric and Donald Jr. would manage to avoid potential conflicts of interests.
That was one of thousands of lies Trump would go on to tell.
Days before an October 2018 New York Timesinvestigation revealed the so-called "self-made billionaire" future president received at least $413 million through his father's real estate empire and evading tax authorities, a Washington, D.C. federal district judge decided that nearly 200 Democratic senators and representatives had legal standing to sue Trump over violations to the emoluments clause.
This was the second time a federal judge allowed such an action to proceed, the first coming the previous April when U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte approved District of Columbia attorney Karl A. Racine and Maryland attorney general Brian E. Frosh's lawsuit against Trump's emoluments clause violations.
Then there was the perfidy surrounding the Trumps' "charitable organization," the Trump Foundation, which led to then-New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filing a civil lawsuit.
This led directly to New York judge Saliann Scarpulla shutting down the Trump Foundation at the end of last year.
As the Trumps were saying good-bye to their precious charity, though, another layer was unfolding.
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