no need to do this. Our President (Trump-R) already promised to release his tax returns.
2 Likes
I believe if said law was passed requiring candidates would be required to release tax returns it would be held as constitutional. There are only some 11 cases regarding state ballot access laws that have ever reached the SCOTUS that they have ruled on. In nearly every case where they found them to be unconstitutional it was on 14th amendment grounds.
For example in Bullock v Carter which was a case where the state of Texas required a filing fee to be paid before access the ballot they found ound that the fees affected the ability to vote, applied a strict scrutiny and held the mandatory fees unconstitutional because it excluded both serious and frivolous candidates based on the ability to pay.
A suitably written law that requires any candidate who has filed taxes with some particular time from say the preceeding 7 years would be required to release them before access the ballot, I believe would be found constitutional. There is no violation of the 14th and equal protection because if a candidate hasn’t filed any taxes then they don’t have to release them. The ones that have would not be placed in an undue burden to do so.
Not at all… all congress would have to do is change federal law making them public…
Judicial precedents of Powell v. McCormack and U.S. Term Limits Inc. v. Thornton.
Powell v. McCormack doesn’t apply as it relates to those already having been elected and in fact has nothing to do with ballot access.
U.S. Term Limits Inc. v. Thornton is a more interesting one in so far as it was the liberal and moderate bloc of the SCOTUS at the time who formed the 5-4 decision in that case. Clarence Thomas himself forming a dissenting opinion. Now that the SCOTUS has switch 5-4 in the other direction, are you so sure Thomas is going to go against his own opinion if it comes up again?
1 Like
Oh, I agree it could be considered constitutional but I just don’t think it is good law.
States rights.
Can’t imagine why anyone would run for public office in these United States.
Money, power.
I know that the Washington Examiner is conservative-leaning, but from this link is former Governor’s Brown reasoning for vetoing a very similar bill as this in 2017.
Good move by Newsom.
An interesting article and after reading that I can sort of understand the rational around the other point of view.
I will counter however that if Brown and others are going to use the slippery slope arguement, then they and anyone else must consider the slippery slope down the other side of the mountain and that is that there should be NO ballot access laws enforceable anywhere, that arent exactly what is laid out in the constitution.
That opens up a whole new can of worms that most people are not prepared to deal with. What I’m talking about for example is… Absolutely no filing fees required, no party affiliation, no primaries, nothing. Each state required to list 25,000 just making up a number here but it could be much higher or lower than that on their ballot.
Could you imagine a voting machine having to list 25000 people on one item of it and teaching millions of people how to search for one individuals and so on. It really would be a nightmare beyond comprehension.
But hey if that’s what people want, go for it. Wont take them long to fix that situation.
He simply wouldn’t run there.
Not like he’s going to win California anyway.
I’m playing golf with one of the PA Republican Chief Counsels later today. If I remember I’ll inquire about the chances of this succeeding.
Think what would happen to the down ballot candidates state-wide.
Why are we even arguing about this?
Donald Trump said he would release his tax returns and he’s a man of his word. He does not lie and when he says something you can take that to the bank.
1 Like
Ok you do realize this wouldn’t matter in the slightest, right? Trump isn’t winning Cali so it doesn’t matter if he is on the ballot or not. The left could just scream popular vote more than they already do for a non relevant statistic. But it changes nothing.
Can I take it to HIS bank? 
1 Like
Once again, think about the effect on the down ballot state-wide.
The States have no authority to add qualifications for National election candidates.
