The Trump Coin Case Ends, but Legal Questions Remain

Less than a week after United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the final design of the new $1 coin featuring the face of President Donald Trump, a federal lawsuit in Oregon challenging the coin’s production has been voluntarily dismissed. The controversial coin is scheduled for release this fall. 

Plans for the gold-plated coin include the presidential seal and “250” etched on one side, plus a portrait of Trump with the words “liberty” and “in God we trust” on the other. The coin, which is being minted to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary, is meant to “honor the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism,” and “celebrate the strength of American values,” Bessent posted on social media.

However, critics argue the addition of Trump’s face not only breaks with long-standing norms against enshrining living persons on legal tender, but also violates federal law. 

Legislation passed by Congress in 1866 “expressly and unambiguously forbids” the production of a coin featuring “the image of a face of a living man” and is meant to prevent “officials from using currency as an instrument of political self-promotion,” according to court documents filed in federal court by James Rickher, a retired lawyer in Portland, Oregon. Known as the Thayer Amendment, the law was passed in reaction to former Treasury Department official Spencer Clark placing himself on banknotes intended to honor William Clark, of the famous Lewis and Clark exploration duo. 

Today, the statute grants the secretary of the Treasury the authority to “engrave and print United States currency” and states “only the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency and bonds.” However, proponents of the Trump coin argue the Thayer Amendment is limited to paper currency and instead point to a separate statute that governs the minting of coins and has no blanket prohibition on including the portrait of a living person. 

But the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020 (CCCRA), which authorized the redesign of dollar coins “with designs emblematic of the United States semiquincentennial” to be produced only in the year 2026, does limit the design. The statute reads, in part, “no head and shoulders portrait or bust of any person, living or dead, and no portrait of a living person may be included in the design on the reverse of” the commemorative dollar coin. 

In response, the Treasury Department argued in court filings the correct interpretation of the statute only “limit[s] the prohibition [of a portrait of a living person] specifically to the reverse” or tails side of the coin. And since “the proposed design places President Trump’s portrait on the [head’s] side and an eagle on the reverse side,” there is no legal complication. And besides, the government’s lawyer argued, elsewhere in the statute the secretary is granted broad discretion over the designs of gold bullion and proof coins—coins that are still considered legal tender and official U.S. currency. 

Despite these many questions of statutory interpretation, Rickher filed to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit on July 20 after being denied a preliminary injunction against the production of the coin in late June. The denial, written by U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, was due to Rickher’s lack of standing and inability to prove he would suffer a concrete or particularized harm should the coin be produced and distributed. Thus, Immergut did not rule on the merits of the case. 

Indeed, it could be that no one will have standing to challenge the coin in court until after the coin is produced and distributed. One scenario in which someone might prove injury and therefore have standing to sue, Richard Painter, former chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, told NPR, is if a vendor or customer refused to accept the coin as legal tender. 

But even if the Trump administration were to win in court, however, this kind of leader worship and idolatry is deeply antithetical to American values. And whether such a coin is accepted or rejected is ultimately up to the American people today. After all, although former President Calvin Coolidge was able to move forward with his controversial and heavily criticized coin depicting him alongside former President George Washington on the half-dollar in celebration of America’s 150th anniversary, the decision was largely regarded as a flop and resulted in 859,408 of the 1 million coins minted being returned and melted.