Brief for Professor Clark D. Cunningham & Professor Jesse Egbert as Amici Curiae Supporting Neither Party, In re Trump, 958 F.3d 274 (4th Cir.2020) (en banc), dismissed as moot sub nom Trump v District of Columbia, 141 S.Ct. 1262 (Mem) (Jan. 25, 2021), 2019 WestLaw 366218.
Brief cited with approval by 4th Circuit (en banc), 958 F.3d at 286.
"The President's insistence that “emoluments” indisputably include only “profit arising from office or employ” (that is, payment for services rendered in performance of a formal job), while possible, is certainly not indisputable. .... See, e.g., Brief of Amici Curiae Professor Clark D. Cunningham and Professor Jesse Egbert on Behalf of Neither Party,"

Amicus brief also published on the Social Science Research Network at, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3334017
See also Clark D. Cunningham & Jesse Egbert, Using Empirical Data to Investigate the Original Meaning of “Emolument” in the Constitution , 36 Georgia State L. Rev 465 (2020), available at https://readingroom.law.gsu.edu/gsulr/vol36/iss5/6/

Online Appendix to Amicus Brief

Results of searching for "emolument*" in the Corpus of Historical American English
Chart listing 24 examples of “profit” and/or “emolument”
Chart listing all 70 cases of “other emolument”
Chart of all 137 cases of “emolument” with “receive”
Chart of all 12 cases of “emolument” with “accept”
Chart of all 11 cases of unmodified “emolument” with receive/accept

Original Texts:
Example 1: Alexander Hamilton to John Davidson, 13 April 1793. 14 THE PAPERS OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON (Harold C. Syrett 1969), available at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-14-02-0208
Example 2: Appendix to the History of Congress, 8 Annals of Cong. 1569-1570 (1798-1799)
Example 3: Appendix to the History of the Fifth Congress, 9 Annals of Cong. 3914 (1798-1799)
Example 4: Form of Commission to Deputy Attorney Generals(1779) 3 THE PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 21 (Julian P. Boyd ed. 1951), available at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-03-02-0025
Example 5: Reply to Vindex Patriae on American Representation in Parliament, THE GAZETTEER (Jan 29, 1776), 13 THE PAPERS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 63-66
(Leonard W. Labaree ed. 1969), available at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-13-02-0022
Example 6: To George Washington from William Mumford, 9 May 1789, May 9th, 1789, 2 THE PAPERS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON 240-242 (Dorothy Twohig ed.1987), available at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-02-02-0179
Example 7: 20 JOURNALS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 766 (1781)
Example 8: 9 JOURNALS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 986-987 (1777)
Example 9: 15 JOURNALS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 1307 (1779)
Example 10: Leonard Cooper to Virginia Delegates, 22 June 1781, 3 THE PAPERS OF JAMES MADISON 166-167 (William T. Hutchinson & William M. E. Rachal eds. 1963), available at
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-03-02-0085
Example 11: To Thomas Jefferson from George Muter, 6 March 1781, 5 THE PAPERS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 78-80 (Julian P. Boyd ed. 1952), available at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-05-02-0103
Example 12: 29 JOURNALS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 635 (1785)
Example 13: George Friedrich von Martens, SUMMARY OF THE LAW OF NATIONS (Philadelphia 1795) (original text image not available)
Example 14: From George Washington to John Adams, July 13, 1798, 2 THE PAPERS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, RETIREMENT SERIES 402-404 (W. W. Abbot ed.
1998), available at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-02-02-0314
Example 15: Pelatiah Webster, POLITICAL ESSAYS ON THE NATURE AND OPERATION OF MONEY, PUBLIC FINANCES, AND OTHER SUBJECTS: PUBLISHED DURING THE
AMERICAN WAR, AND CONTINUED UP TO THE PRESENT YEAR, 1791 (original text image not available)
Example 16: To George Washington from Alexander Hamilton, March 1, 1782, 3 THE PAPERS OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON 5-6 (Harold C. Syrett ed. 1962), available
at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-03-02-0006
Example 17: 29 JOURNALS OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 635 (1785)
Example 18: To Alexander Hamilton from William Ellery, July 18, 1791, 8 THE PAPERS OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON 553-554 (Harold C. Syrett ed. 1965), available at
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-08-02-0501
Example 19: James Smith to the Commissioners, August 24, 1778, 6 THE ADAMS PAPERS, PAPERS OF JOHN ADAMS 389-392 (Robert J. Taylor ed. 1983), available at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-06-02-0299
Example 20:To George Washington from James McHenry, March 31, 1799, 3 THE PAPERS OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, RETIREMENT SERIES 453-458 (W. W.Abbot and Edward G. Lengel. eds. 1999), available at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-03-02-0345
Example 21: Prospectus of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures (Philadelphia, Aug. 1791), 9 THE PAPERS OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON 144-53
(Harold C. Syrett, ed., 1965), available at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-09-02-0114   
Example 22: [General] Nathanael Greene to His Excellency The President of Congress (Newport, Aug. 22, 1785), 10 THE PAPERS OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON 421- 28 (Harold C. Syrett, ed., 1966) https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-10-02-0060-0002
Example 23: War Office Report (Aug. 30, 1783), Journals of the Continental Congress 533-34 (1783) ("gratuity or other emolument")

Text images of all eleven cases of unmodified “emolument” with “receive/accept”

Media coverage of Cunningham & Egbert amicus brief on original meaning of "emolument"
Law Journal Editorial Board, On Language, Lawyers and Judges Don't Have All the Answers (March 22, 2019)
Aaron Blake, A big Trump case hinges on the definition of ‘emoluments.’ A new study has bad news for him (Washington Post Jan 29, 2019)
Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, How Two Arcane Clauses In The Constitution Could Expose Trump’s Businesses  (FiveThirtyEight    March 18, 2019)
Elie Mystal, Emoluments Amicus Fitting To Turn Originalists Into Hypocrites, Again (Above the Law  Jan 29, 2019)

Amicus brief also cited with approval:
Wilson v Safelite Group, Inc., 930 F.3d 429 (6th Cir. 2019)
-- Concurring opinion by Judge Jane B. Stranch, 930 F.3d at 447 ("the use of corpus linguistics is a difficult and complex exercise ... I would leave this task to qualified experts, not to untrained judges and lawyers. See, e.g., Brief for Professor Clark D. Cunningham, et al. as Amicus Curiae on Behalf of Neither Party, In Re: Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America, No. 18-2486 (4th Cir. Jan. 29, 2019) (discussing use of corpus linguistics by professor of applied linguistics to help determine the meaning of "emoluments" during the founding era).” )

Back to Law & Linguistics page
Back to Professor Cunningham's home page