Saturday, December 17, 2016

I found this article in "ProPublica" to settle the argument regarding "The Emoluments Clause."

Everything the Executive Branch receives as gifts by sovereign countries fall under the Emoluments Clause. The Nobel Peace Prize received by President Obama was exempt from this law because the Nobel Committee is not a "King, Prince or foreign state." The operative word is "sovereign."

A picture is worth a thousand words.

December 13, 2016
By Richard Tofel

...In any event, (click here) presidents starting with Andrew Jackson, our seventh president, in 1830, have sought congressional approval for the acceptance of gifts under the Emoluments Clause. As Tillman himself notes, Martin Van Buren, president No. 8, and John Tyler, No. 10, also looked to Congress in these circumstances. All of the modern presidents’ attorneys general who considered the matter opined implicitly or explicitly that the president was bound by the Clause, most recently in an opinion regarding President Obama’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize. Tillman insists that all of them are wrong....