President Donald Trump. Courtesy photo

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to immediately block a newly enacted state law that would force President Donald Trump to disclose his tax returns to appear on the 2020 primary ballot.

In a unanimous order, however, the justices scheduled expedited briefing in the case and asked the state to explain why they should not grant California Republicans’ request to declare the law unconstitutional.

California’s lawyers will have until Sept. 4 to respond. Attorneys for the California Republican Party and its chairwoman, Jessica Millan Patterson, must reply by Sept. 11.

“We’re very pleased,” said Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk partner Chuck Bell, who is representing the Republican Party and its leader. “The fact that the court issued an expedited schedule and an [order to show cause] is notable.”

The state lawsuit is separate from five similar suits pending in federal district court. Four of those cases, including one brought by Trump and his presidential campaign, have been consolidated in the Sacramento federal courtroom of U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. of the Eastern District of California.

England has scheduled a hearing on the matter for Sept. 19 and said in an order that he intends to issue a decision on the request for a preliminary injunction by the end of September.

The state Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the parties to consider state laws dating back almost 50 years in their responses. Justices cited Proposition 4, the 1972 voter-approved ballot measure creating rules for an open presidential primary, as well as a Senate Constitutional Amendment enacted the previous year requiring the secretary of state to place “all recognized candidates for president” on the ballot.

The court also asked for discussion of “any guidelines, including internal measures and protocols, that the secretary of state has employed in the intervening decades to assess who is a ‘recognized’ candidate for purposes” of setting the ballot under constitutional rules.

California’s law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last month, would require any presidential or gubernatorial candidate to disclose five years of income tax returns to qualify for the primary election ballot. Though the law does not name Trump specifically, legislative Democrats and Newsom said the measure is aimed at the president, who has refused to make public his tax documents as past leaders have done.

Read more:

California Defends New Law Requiring Candidates to Disclose Tax Returns

Boies, Boutrous and Chemerinsky Back California’s Squeeze on Trump’s Tax Returns