California State Senate Passes Tax Returns Ballot Bill

The Associated Press reports:

California’s state Senate voted 27-10 on Thursday to require anyone appearing on the state’s presidential primary ballot to publicly release five years’ worth of income tax returns. The proposal is in response to Trump, who bucked 40 years of tradition by refusing to release his tax returns prior to his election in 2016.

California’s presidential primary is scheduled for March 3. If the bill becomes law, Trump could not appear on the state’s primary ballot without filing his tax returns with the California secretary of state.

The Legislature passed a nearly identical bill in 2017, only to have it vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown, telling lawmakers he was concerned the law was unconstitutional. Brown, a Democrat, refused to release his tax returns while in office.

Axios reports:

The state’s current Gov. Gavin Newsom has recently called himself a “positive alternative,” to Trump. His office, however, did not commit to signing this most recent bill. Illinois’s state senate also passed a similar bill in April 2019. Already, many 2020 Democratic candidates have released their most recent returns.

Republicans have vowed to take such bills to the Supreme Court if necessary.