Washington state passed a bill that would strike Trump's name from 2020 election ballot papers unless he releases five years of tax returns

Lawyers said move is 'likely constitutional' but will be challenged in court

Trump is the first president since Nixon to refuse to release any tax information

New Jersey recently passed similar bill, but it was vetoed by Chris Christie

Washington's state senate has passed a bill that would see Donald Trump's name dropped from 2020 election ballots unless he releases five years of tax returns.

Senators approved the bill by 28 votes to 21 on Tuesday, sending it to the House of Representatives for approval.

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Lawyers say the move is 'likely Constitutional' but warned that it 'will definitely be challenged in court' if it passes the representatives.

Donald Trump's name will be removed from ballot papers in Washington state in the 2020 election unless he releases five years of tax returns under a new law passed by the senate

Democrats who backed the bill said it was necessary to restore democratic norms after Trump broke with 40 years of tradition by refusing to release his returns.

Republican opponents say the bill is teeing the state up for an expensive legal fight while politicizing how elections are run in the state.

Passing the bill would also put the state in an 'untenable' position in the event that Trump decides to defy their order.

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Republican Hans Zeiger told CBS: 'We're on really risky ground when we're trying to place conditions on a federal election.'

Washington is not the first state to attempt to pass such a law.

In February, a similar bill was passed in New Jersey but ultimately vetoed by governor Chris Christie, who called it a 'political stunt'.

Trump is the first president since Nixon - whose tax returns were leaked to the press by an IRS official - who has refused to release any financial information

Donald Trump became the first president since Richard Nixon to refuse to release his tax returns after winning the 2016 election.

Trump initially said he would release the returns once an IRS audit was complete, but has since reneged on that pledge.

The returns would reveal Trump's earnings, sources of income, and strategies he used to minimize his tax bill, along with a wealth of other information.

As such, the documents have become a source of fascination for Democrats, who have vowed to use obscure legislation to force Trump to hand them over to the House Ways and Means Committee, which they now control.

Nixon was the first president to have his tax returns disclosed amid claims of corruption after an official at the IRS leaked them to the press.

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Since then it has become an established norm for presidential candidates to release their returns during the election to prove they are 'clean'.