As California’s attempt to illuminate Trump’s finances hits obstacles, similar efforts are playing out across the country, and some are showing more promise. | Getty Images California Supreme Court strikes down Trump tax returns law

OAKLAND — The California Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down a recently enacted law seeking to compel Donald Trump to release his tax returns, the latest legal setback for Democrats hoping to crack open the president’s finances.

California has been battling on multiple legal fronts to defend CA SB27 (19R), a measure signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this year that requires candidates to disclose financial information if they wish to appear on California primary ballots.


While defenders — including Newsom and legislative Democrats — call the law a worthy mechanism to inform voters, critics such as Trump’s attorneys and the California Republican Party have bashed it as an unconstitutional and nakedly political power grab.

Justices on California’s highest court appeared deeply skeptical of the state’s position at oral arguments earlier this month that the Legislature has the authority to constrain candidates’ access to the ballot. Several of them echoed former Gov. Jerry Brown’s rationale for vetoing an earlier version of the bill by warning it could set a precedent of cascading requirements, like forcing candidates to release health and academic records.

The new ruling is the second blow to the law in recent months, with a judge in a parallel federal case blocking the law’s implementation last month. The state appealed that decision, but Secretary of State Alex Padilla conceded on Thursday by dropping the case.

“While we are disappointed in today's ruling, the movement for greater transparency will endure. The history of our democracy is on the side of more transparency, not less," Padilla said in a statement.

While Trump is unlikely to win California’s electoral votes whether or not he appears on the ballot, there were wider political implications to the fight. Republican officials — who argue Trump's erasure from March primary ballots would drag down their candidates in other races across California — celebrated the ruling, with state party chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson, the named plaintiff in the lawsuit, lauding the decision as “a victory for every California voter.”

“We are pleased that the courts saw through the Democrats’ petty partisan maneuvers and saw this law for what it is — an unconstitutional attempt to suppress Republican voter turnout,” Millan Patterson said in a statement.

As California’s attempt to illuminate Trump’s finances hits obstacles, similar efforts are playing out across the country, and some are showing more promise. A federal appeals court in New York ruled recently that Trump must turn over his returns to a Manhattan grand jury — a decision that Trump’s team is contesting by appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.