Disregarding repeated calls by an overwhelming majority of American people and decades of precedent, President Donald Trump refuses to disclose his tax returns. Tax returns give voters a vital tool to cast a more informed vote in presidential elections and then to hold a president accountable following the election.
Given the events of the Trump administration’s first five months in office, including the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and Trump’s proposed tax plan that particularly benefits high-income individuals like himself and his family, disclosure of tax returns would help voters assess whether the president supports laws and policies that benefit him personally to the detriment of the American people.
So it is not surprising that three-quarters of American voters want Trump to release this tax returns. Maine is among 26 states considering legislation, LD 1422, to require presidential and vice presidential candidates to release their tax returns before they can appear on the ballot.
The first question we should ask about such a law is whether it is constitutional. The U.S. Constitution sets out qualifications for all federal offices — for example, the president must be at least 35 years old and a natural born citizen — and the U.S. Supreme Court has held that states may not tack on additional qualifications for holding federal office. But states may impose requirements that candidates must satisfy before they can be placed on the ballot.
These requirements for ballot access are familiar to everyone: states require candidates to collect money, gather signatures, submit their candidacies at the right time, pay filing fees and many other hurdles. Courts have upheld such requirements so long as they are reasonable and do not impose an unnecessary burden on running for office. Article II of the Constitution allows state legislatures to direct “the manner” for choosing presidential electors. Under that authority, Maine could require each candidate to provide the last five years of his or her tax returns in order to appear on the ballot.
While states have limitations on their ability to restrict ballot access, requiring tax returns does not establish some political “pre-existing condition” that runs afoul of the Qualifications Clause of the Constitution. Rather, this is just one more document that each candidate must submit to appear on the ballot. Nor is it overly burdensome — in fact, every presidential candidate except Trump has voluntarily disclosed his tax returns in the last 40 years.
The information provided by tax returns is valuable for voters. The more information we have about our candidates, the more informed our vote will be. The Supreme Court has long emphasized the importance of disclosure in the campaign finance context, explaining that “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” Moreover, the conflicts of interest that tax returns might reveal can help reassure the public that the president is pursuing policies in the nation’s best interests, not just his own. For example, if Trump is truly worth $10 billion, as he has claimed, the repeal of the estate tax may yield a $4 billion windfall to his family. If that’s the case, this is the kind of information voters deserve to know.
Given the overwhelming public support for disclosure, and the many reasons why voters should have a complete sense of a candidate’s financial picture, I hope the Legislature follows the will of the people and, like so many other states, gives strong consideration to LD 1422 when it comes to the floor.
Dmitry Bam is a professor at the University of Maine School of Law in Portland.