As we expected, the Trump campaign is challenging the law in California that requires Trump to release his taxes in order to appear on the primary ballot:
POLITICO – President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee — along with the California Republican Party — filed a pair of lawsuits Tuesday in an attempt to block a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that requires Trump to release his taxes to qualify for the March 2020 primary ballot.
“What’s at stake is the right of California voters, all of them, to vote for candidates that are qualified to run under the U.S. Constitution,’’ attorney Harmeet Dhillon told POLITICO after filing the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.
The pair of lawsuits by Trump and the GOP challenging Newsom escalate a battle between the president and Democratic officials in California, who have filed more than 40 lawsuits challenging his administration’s policies on issues ranging from climate change to health care.
Dhillon, a member of the RNC and the past vice chair of the California Republican Party, said the state GOP lawsuit is based on the belief that “the Constitution sets forth the qualifications for all federal offices … and in term limits cases, states have no right to impose additional qualifications.”
The Trump campaign also filed suit Tuesday in same California federal court challenging the constitutionality of CA SB27 (19R), the law formally known as the “California Presidential Tax Transparency and Accountability Act.” Signed just last week by Newsom, it requires all candidates on the state’s primary ballot to produce five years of income taxes. Newsom’s action in signing the bill broke with former Gov. Jerry Brown, who vetoed a similar bill saying he believed its constitutionality was questionable.
The lawsuit assails the California measure as a partisan ploy that violates the First Amendment. “The Democratic Party is on a crusade to obtain the President’s federal tax returns in the hopes of finding something they can use to harm him politically,” the complaint reads. “In their rush to join this crusade, California Democrats have run afoul of these restrictions on State power over federal elections.”
Newsom and legislators, the lawsuit charges, “made clear that they were retaliating against President Trump for his political associations and speech.”
According to Politico, the first lawsuit alleges that the new California law is a “naked political attack against the sitting president of the United States.”
I couldn’t agree more. I don’t think that, in a fair court of law, there’s any way this law withstands the constitutional challenges brought before them. Of course, an activist judge or two will probably try and make a name for themselves by upholding the law, but in the end I expect the law to be struck down.
I do wonder, however, if there’s enough time for the challenges to make it through the courts in time for Trump to ensure his name is on the ballot in California’s primary elections, which are on March 3rd.