On December 16, the Ninth Circuit said that the five federal cases over the California tax returns-ballot access law are moot. The Ninth Circuit order in all these combined cases says, “Because these appeals were mooted by the California Supreme Court’s decision in Patterson v Padilla, and not through any voluntary actions of the parties, we remand these matters to the district court with instruction to vacate the October 2, 2019 order.”

This means that the U.S. District Court order, finding that the California law keeping presidential primary candidates off ballots unless they reveal their income tax returns violates the U.S. Constitution, can’t be used as a precedent in future litigation. Here is the three-page order.