Emoluments Clause

Identifying four common uses of the term “emoluments” in the Founding era and arguing that the three uses of the term in the Constitution had common meaning, which was “compensation with financial value received by reason of public employment.”

Pointing out that President Washington accepted, without permission of Congress, a gift from the French Ambassador in 1791 and interpreting this as evidence of original public meaning that the Emoluments Clause does not apply to the President.

Discussing how to resolve constitutional tensions between aggrandizement and self-dealing through contextual adjustments in the interpretation of the Compensation Clauses.

Arguing the prohibitions on titles of nobility were intended “to stamp out” a “pernicious system of social hierarchy” that created “an entire system of social prestige based on nobility.”