An Oregon judge lost patience with a government lawyer's defense of plans to mint a 24-karat gold coin bearing President Donald Trump's likeness.
A retired Portland attorney filed a lawsuit earlier this year challenging the proposed coin, arguing that federal law plainly prohibits the images of living people on U.S. currency. U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut repeatedly interrupted U.S. Justice Department lawyer Kathryn Barragan during a hearing on the case Wednesday, reported the Oregonian.
“What’s the purpose?" Immergut interjected. "I don’t want the long-winded version."
Barragan was arguing that an 1866 amendment eventually became law first head of the Bureau of Engraving & Printing put his own portrait on a 5-cent paper note, but plaintiff James Rickher urged the judge to block the U.S. Mint from making the Trump coin because federal law requires anyone portrayed on currency to be deceased.
“The prohibition is designed to avoid political self-promotion," Rickher argued. "The word ‘deceased’ is unambiguous."
Rickher, the retired attorney, told the court the law does not distinguish between coins intended for circulation or coins intended for commemoration and collection, but Barragan argued that the plaintiff lacks the "personal stake" necessary to bring his challenge and asked the judge to toss his lawsuit.
The government lawyer also argued that his challenge was premature because the U.S. Treasury secretary hasn't formally approved a final design for the coin, which would have a proposed face value of $2,026 in honor of the nation's 250th anniversary, but Barragan told the court the estimated sale value of the 47 coins planned for production would be $90,000.
Immergut, a Trump nominee, asked Rickher to give his best argument to justify his legal standing to intervene, and the novice coin collector said he hoped to protect the integrity of the coin collection market as a participant because the Trump coin would drive down the value of his personal collection.
“The structure of the coin market would be destroyed by a sovereign who is supposed to be following the law but issuing a coin that is illegal,” he explained.
Barragan, a 2022 Harvard Law School graduate who's worked a little over a year for the DOJ, told the court that three coins in history had been produced bearing a living person's image, but Rickher argued those had also violated the law but no enforcement was taken.