A new law in California requires all candidates for the 2020 presidential election to disclose five years of income tax returns.
Candidates who fail to meet this requirement will be blocked from appearing on the primary ballot. This includes Donald Trump, who has refrained from releasing his tax returns (and is not required to do so under federal law).
“States have a legal and moral duty to do everything in their power to ensure leaders seeking the highest offices meet minimal standards, and to restore public confidence,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom when he signed the law on July 30th. “The disclosure required by this bill will shed light on conflicts of interest, self-dealing, or influence from domestic and foreign business interest.”
Critics insist the bill was designed to keep Trump off the ballot and increase the odds of a same-party contest in California’s “top-two” election system.
“If the California law is allowed to stand, a fringe candidate with no chance of becoming president could win the Republican presidential primary with only a small number of votes and the duly elected president of the United States could be kept off the ballot,” argues lawyer Harmeet K. Dhillon.
Dhillon’s firm is representing the RNC and the California Republican Party in a lawsuit to overturn the ridiculous law as soon as possible. The law is also being challenged by President Trump’s attorneys, by conservative-leaning group Judicial Watch, and by California businessmen Roque “Rocky” de la Fuente.
“We believe the law is firmly on our side. A state government cannot simply do an end-run around the Constitution to add requirements for the office of president of the United States, as California Democrats have done,” writes Dhillon.
If allowed to stand, the law would set a dangerous precedent for other states to enact different sets of rules in order to knock out candidates they don’t like.
Even former California Governor Jerry Brown, a far-left Democrat, vetoed a nearly identical bill when it arrived on his desk in 2017. “Today we require tax returns, but what would be next?” asked Brown. “Five years of health records? A certified birth certificate? High school report cards?”
Editor’s note: This is a pretty gutsy attack on Trump, it is blatantly political directed against one guy, and it attempts to defy Constitutional requirements for candidacy.
Think of similar plays against the election process … like polls taxes – which were found to be unconstitutional, a very long time ago.