Emoluments and Other Benefits

Emoluments Meaning

Emoluments mean the compensation to the employees or workers as per the length and duration of job or work, holding an office or service. It differs in the type of work and its length. So the word ‘employment’ is derived from a Latin word ‘Emolumentum’ which basically means the profit or gain or the benefits to a person and the efforts an employee or worker has put into work. So in simple words, the term employment means the money in return for the work done based on the length and time of the work to a worker or an employee. The emolument clause is proposed by the U.S. Constitution to end the corruption, influence of any other nation, or any other activity similar to this. 

Emoluments And Their History

The clause of emolument sets back the dates when the English civil war was implemented in which the majority of the officers were sent behind bars by the court of France. So when the United States came into existence, Alexander Hamilton saw that there was a huge amount of cash inflows from other nations in the form of black money. Along with that, the U.S. was in a soft form of Republics which was the main reason for corruption. At the time of the constitution drafting of the U.S.The clause of emolument was mentioned in Article 6 of it but it was waived off by the officers of the United States through the gifts of the French and Spanish governments. 

Need for Emolument 

The main purpose of the Emolument is to eliminate officials to avoid the habit of bribing. Through the Emoluments concept or the Foreign emolument Clause, the US is trying to reduce the foreign country’s influence on their government agencies like corruption. The process of corruption in the U.S. started with gifting from the Spanish and French governments while they visit the U.S. to borrow. So this clause focuses on eliminating receiving any gifts from any of the foreign officials. This clause came into effect to promote the independence of the President by removing any monetary influence on them. The clause was implemented for a sole purpose of keeping the country’s officials far away from being influenced by the outsiders even though gifts or unconditionally. 

Employment Clause By The U.S. Constitution 

The Foreign Emoluments clause was proposed by the U.S. Constitution and is mainly used in constitutional laws which are mentioned under Article 1 of Section 9 of the Constitution of the U.S. As per that, “No title of nobility shall be granted By the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall without the consent of congress accept of any present employment office or title of any kind whatever from any king prince or foreign state.” 

Apart from this, another clause is the Domestic Emolument Clause under Article II of Section 1 which states, “The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United State, or any of them.”

The third clause under Article I of Section 6 is the Ineligibility Class which states, 

“No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.” 

All the clauses above were highly accepted by the scholars worldwide who agreed to implement this all over the nations to eliminate any type of third-party influence. Along with this, as discussed above, this clause was even mentioned years back when the U.S. Constitution was drafted which shows that corruption and outside influence was there which forced the drafters to include this in the constitution. These emoluments restrict any type of benefit, profit, service, valuable things as gifts to any federal officials from taking it as a business transaction while being on government duty. 

Emolument actions and proceedings 

The former president of the United States, Donald Trump has filed a total of three lawsuits till now from 2016. The claim is that there is a violation of a clause which is the foreign Emolument clause for the payment from the outside agencies for the agreements with businesses owned by Trump.

Conclusion

An emolument is a clause that states that there should be no outside influence on the officials of the country. The influence can be of special service, compensation, expensive gifts, etc. The main purpose of the clause is to keep the country’s officials far away from being influenced by outsiders even though gifts or unconditionally.