On August 6, the California Republican Party filed a lawsuit in the State Supreme Court, Patterson v Padilla, S257302. It requests that court accept the case, even though the lower state courts have not handled it yet. Sometimes State Supreme Courts do that. It argues that the California Constitution bars California from enforcing Senate Bill 27, the new law that says candidates can’t appear on a presidential primary ballot unless they reveal their income tax returns.

There are now six lawsuits pending against the new law, five using the U.S. Constitution, and one using the State Constitution. The State Constitution says the Secretary of State must put all “recognized” presidential candidates on a presidential primary ballot (assuming they are seeking the nomination of a party). That provision was passed in 1972.

On August 6, the National Republican Committee, the California Republican Party, and three Republican voters filed a federal lawsuit against the new California law that keeps presidential primary candidates off the ballot unless they reveal their income tax returns for the last five years. Melendez v Newsom, e.d., 2:19cv-706.

One of the plaintiffs was a delegate to the Republican national convention in 2016 and hopes to be a delegate in 2020. One of the other plaintiffs also hopes to be a delegate to the 2020 national convention. The lead plaintiff, Melissa Melendez, is a California state legislator. The case has not yet been assigned to a judge. Here is the Complaint.

There are now at least five lawsuits in federal court against the new California law, but no lawsuit has been filed that mentions the State Constitution, which clearly prohibits the California law from being upheld. The California Constitution says that the “recognized” candidates will go on the presidential primary ballots.

As far as is known, this is the first time the Republican Party in any state has ever filed a challenge to a presidential ballot access restriction, since 1916, when the Louisiana Republican Party filed a lawsuit so as to enable its presidential nominee, Charles Evans Hughes, to appear on the November ballot. The Louisiana Republican Party had lost its status as a qualified party in Louisiana in 1912 and it was unable to complete the petition to qualify its presidential nominee in 1916, which required 1,000 signatures of voters who were not registered in any party.