You’re Not Laughing Now

 

During 2017 to 2021, I do not remember many U.S. DOJ citations to my publications touching on the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses. At that time, DOJ’s briefs went their own way. But now, in Sistrunk, a new emoluments clause case (filed in 2026), I detect a new openness. See generally <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc8lCqdigEs>. 

Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss, Sistrunk Seeds Inc. v. Donald J. Trump in his official capacity at 17, Civ. A. No. 1:26-cv-23365-RAR-LFL (S.D. Fla. brief filed: Aug. 11, 2026) (filed by U.S. DOJ) (citing Tillman’s ‘Trump’s “Emoluments” Problem’ in ‘Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y’), ECF No. 37, 2026 WL -------; 

State Defendants’ and the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation’s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs’ Complaint at 22, Sistrunk Seeds Inc. v. Donald J. Trump in his official capacity at 17, Civ. A. No. 1:26-cv-23365-RAR-LFL (S.D. Fla. brief filed: Aug. 11, 2026) (filed by the Solicitor General of Florida) (citing: [i] Tillman’s ‘Trump’s “Emoluments” Problem’ in ‘Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y’; and, [ii] Blackman & Tillman’s ‘Domestic Emoluments Clause’ entry in ‘Heritage Guide 3d’), ECF No. 38, 2026 WL -------;

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘You’re Not Laughing Now,’ New Reform Club (Aug. 12, 2026, 12:42 PM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2026/08/a-three-citation-day.html>; 

 

Pathological

 

Christina S. Ho, ‘Care-Forward Jurisprudence and the Task of Health Law in Biopolitical-Necropolitical Times’ (posted: Aug. 10, 2026) (manuscript at 21 n.118) (citing Tillman’s ‘Reply to Teachout’ in ‘Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy’), <https://ssrn.com/abstract=7248420>:

“As an example of this pathological abstention from substantive judgment, keeping us from acting against even the blatant sale of Presidential favor under Trump, see Seth Barrett Tillman, Closing Statement, The Original Public Meaning of the Foreign Emoluments Clause: A Reply to Professor Zephyr Teachout, 107 Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy 180 (2013) (denying that ‘the scope of [a constitutional] anticorruption principle…to the extent it is reliant on the Foreign Emoluments Clause’ would reach key elected officials).”

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Pathological,’ New Reform Club (Aug. 11, 2026, 3:16 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2026/08/pathological.html>;