San Diego businessman Rocky De La Fuente, one of only two prominent challengers to President Trump in the 2020 Republican presidential primaries, filed suit in federal district court on Tuesday challenging California’s new law requiring presidential candidates to release their federal income tax returns for the most recent five years as a condition to appear on the state’s March 3 primary ballot.
Here is a copy of De La Fuente’s 27-page complaint.
De La Fuente’s lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California only hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed Senate Bill 27 into law.
Citing concerns over its constitutionality, former California Gov. Jerry Brown had vetoed a similar measure in 2017. At the time, the former four-term governor expressed concerns that the legislation could lead to a “slippery slope” in terms of what individual states might require of candidates for public office in the future.
“Today we require tax returns, but what would be next?” asked Brown in vetoing the earlier bill. “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?”
In calling for his fellow Republicans to stand united against the state’s usurpation of individual rights guaranteed under the constitution, De La Fuente said that, unlike President Trump, he is willing to voluntarily release his individual federal tax returns for the most recent five-year period, but that he and other candidates for the presidency shouldn’t be forced by the state to do so as a requirement for appearing on the California primary ballot.
De La Fuente, who seeded his campaign with $5 million in late June — nearly six times as much as the $869,000 reportedly raised by former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, Trump’s only other serious primary challenger to date — criticized the legislation as “unconstitutional” and said that voters are free to make their own judgments in terms of supporting or opposing a candidate based on whether or not he or she released their tax returns.
The Republican hopeful also contended that the new law was clearly aimed at one individual and has little or nothing to do with the state’s interest in regulating the primary ballot, arguing that the legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature wasn’t designed to prevent ballot overcrowding or to eliminate frivolous candidacies. He also stated that it has nothing to do with the state’s legitimate function of guaranteeing that elections are conducted in an orderly manner.
“It is strictly a partisan measure, and a silly one at that,” said De La Fuente.
“Liberal talking points do not amount to a valid state interest to impose regulations designed to prevent candidates from appearing on California’s primary election ballot,” he added.
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