California Supreme Court unanimously finds presidential tax return disclosure requirement violates state constitution

A federal district court already found that California’s new law requiring presidential primary candidates to disclose their tax returns as a condition of ballot access violated several provisions of the United States Constitution. The case is being appealed to the Ninth Circuit, and there was little rush to have the law take effect for 2020.

Now, the California Supreme Court has weighed in with a unanimous decision finding that the state constitution precludes the tax disclosure requirement, too. The California Constitution includes a provision enacted by initiative that requires “recognized” candidates to appear on the primary ballot; this tax return disclosure requirement, the court reasoned, exceeded the legislature’s power. (Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar wrote a brief concurring opinion to indicate his concerns about corruption.)

While my recent draft article emphasized only one facet of these ballot access disputes—whether such conditions are legitimate “manner” restrictions or whether they exceed the state’s power under the Elections Clause and Presidential Electors Clause—I noted that state constitutional law might be an alternative basis for these claims. And here’s one such example.