California has finally gone too far.
Democrats in the infamously liberal state are spitting on the Constitution of the United States with a law that attempts to create an entirely new qualification for president.
The law – just signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom – is supposedly about all candidates in presidential primary elections.
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But in reality, it’s really aimed at just one: President Donald Trump.
This law would block anyone from the ballot who doesn’t disclose their tax returns.
“The disclosure required by this bill will shed light on conflicts of interest, self-dealing, or influence from domestic and foreign business interest,” Newsom insisted as he signed it.
But Trump attorney Jay Sekulow told the media that they would sue the state to block the measure.
And Trump campaign official Tim Murtaugh said it’s clearly not just an attack on Trump… but on the Constitution itself!
“The Constitution is clear on the qualifications for someone to serve as president and states cannot add additional requirements on their own,” Murtaugh told The Hill. “The bill also violates the First Amendment right of association since California can’t tell political parties which candidates their members can or cannot vote for in a primary election.”
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It’s not just Trump supporters who are outraged over the measure.
Even those who aren’t friendly to the president have attacked it – including the editorial board of The Los Angeles Times.
“Do we really think that each state should be placing its own new requirements on presidential candidates above and beyond those laid out in the U.S. Constitution?” The newspaper asked. “Do we want partisan state legislatures making those decisions based on which presidents they support and which they oppose?”
The state’s previous governor, liberal icon Jerry Brown, is also against it.
Brown – who never released his own tax returns – vetoed a similar measure in 2017.
“Today we require tax returns, but what could be next? Five years of health records? A certified birth certificate? High school report cards? And will these requirements vary depending on which political party is in power?” He wrote at the time. “A qualified candidate’s ability to appear on the ballot is fundamental to our democratic system.”
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One legal expert called it “scary stuff.”
“You look at what’s happening with gerrymandering in a lot of states, the way that states are trying to rewrite the maps for political advantage, that’s scary stuff,” ABC legal analyst Dan Abrams said on his Sirius XM radio show. “And this should be, in my view, equally scary stuff. Because it’s politicizing the voting process. And the voting process shouldn’t be politicized.”
The practical effect of the law isn’t clear; it applies only to the primary, where Trump faces no real opposition. His main rival, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, is polling in the single digits to low teens.
Even if he’s not on the California ballot, Trump will win the nomination and – unless California makes a similar law for the general election – he will appear on the ballot in the state as the Republican candidate.
And in any case, he’s likely to lose the leftist state, where he collected just 32 percent of the vote in 2016.
But it’s more the principle of the issue that Trump’s legal team will challenge, for both himself – should a true challenger emerge – and for candidates in the future.
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More importantly, it’s to ensure more states don’t follow suit: CBS News reports that at least seven other states have similar bills in consideration right now.
Experts believe Trump will likely beat the law in court.
“I think it’s very uncertain whether it’s unconstitutional or not,” Rick Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California, Irvine, told the Wall Street Journal. “I would not bet on it surviving.”
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert, and is the author of “America’s Final Warning.”