Democrats in California’s state legislature were playing hardball when they passed a bill requiring candidates to publicly release five years worth of tax returns in order to be included on the state’s presidential and gubernatorial primary ballots.
The bill, which California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law last week, was primarily aimed at President Donald Trump — who has refused to publicly release his tax returns. And Republicans, including Trump’s 2020 campaign, have responded to the law by suing the State of California, according to the Associated Press.
In one of the lawsuits, Republicans denounced the law as “a naked political attack against the sitting president of the United States.” However, the law applies to both Democrats and Republicans; Democrats are not excluded from its tax returns requirement.
California’s law does not require tax returns for general elections, only presidential and gubernatorial primaries. So even if Trump doesn’t release his tax returns, his name will still appear on the ballot for the general election in November 2020. And so will the Democratic presidential nominee, whoever that turns out to be.
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