The California Supreme Court nullified a law that could force President Donald Trump release his tax returns for his name to appear in the state’s primary election ballot.
On Thursday, the state’s highest court ruled that key provisions of the Presidential Tax Transparency Act are invalid and unenforceable. The seven justices of the court were unanimous in their decision that the law violated the California Constitution.
Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye the court’s opinion, in which the justices stated that the Legislature exceeded its authority in requiring presidential candidates release their tax returns as a condition for printing their names in the primary election ballot.
“The Legislature may well be correct that a presidential candidate’s income tax returns could provide California voters with important information. But article II, section 5(c) embeds in the state Constitution the principle that, ultimately, it is the voters who must decide whether the refusal of a ‘recognized candidate throughout the nation or throughout California for the office of President of the United States’ to make such information available to the public will have consequences at the ballot box,” wrote Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye.
