Washington (CNN) A three-judge federal appeals court panel appeared skeptical during oral arguments Monday about letting a group of more than 200 congressional Democrats sue President Donald Trump over foreign payments to his businesses.

Judges on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit questioned whether individual members of Congress have the legal right, or standing, to sue the President, regarding the Constitution's emoluments clause.

"You're not here representing Congress, so you can't seek to protect the institutional interests of Congress," Judge Thomas Griffith told lawyer Elizabeth Wydra of the Constitutional Accountability Center, which is representing the group.

Another member of the panel, Judge David Tatel, invoked the Supreme Court's recent dismissal of a Virginia redistricting case, in which Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that "individual members lack standing to assert the institutional interests of a legislature."

The suit is being led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York, who on Monday was chairing a critical impeachment hearing as the court hearing proceeded.

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