Judge dismisses lawsuit alleging Trump violated constitutional provision

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that President Donald Trump violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause because his hotels and restaurants do business with foreign governments while he is in office.

The plaintiffs argued that because Mr. Trump properties rent out hotel rooms and meeting spaces to other governments, the president was violating a constitutional provision that bans the acceptance of foreign emoluments, or gifts from foreign powers.

But Judge George Daniels of the Southern District of New York ruled that the plaintiffs, led by the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, lacked standing to bring such a case, saying it was up to Congress to prevent the president from accepting emoluments.

“As the only political branch with the power to consent to violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause, Congress is the appropriate body to determine whether, and to what extent, the Defendant’s conduct unlawfully infringes on that power,” Judge Daniels wrote in his ruling.

The suit was one of the most high-profile efforts to take aim at Mr. Trump’s decision to hold onto his business while in the White House. However, the president faces similar suits: one filed by a group of congressional Democrats and another filed by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District.

Families to be targeted?

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is considering a series of measures to halt a new surge of Central American families and unaccompanied minors coming across the Mexican border, including a proposal to separate parents from their children, according to Trump administration officials with knowledge of the plans.

FBI leader questioned

As part of a new investigation of the FBI and its 2016 inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s email server, the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees Wednesday spent hours behind closed doors with Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who was involved in that probe.

Transgender military ban

A federal appeals court on Thursday declined to delay a requirement that the U.S. military begin enlisting qualified transgender men and women for the first time starting on Jan.1.