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Veterans Are Defending the Constitution against a New Enemy: The Secretary of War

Veterans Are Defending the Constitution against a New Enemy: The Secretary of War

​Performer Bad Bunny on stage.

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Sparks National Controversy As Trump Announces Boycott

Trump’s Plan to Gather Data on Every Voter Will Cripple Democracy

Trump’s Plan to Gather Data on Every Voter Will Cripple Democracy

The Insurrection Act, Revisited: Power That Waits in the Margins

The Insurrection Act, Revisited: Power That Waits in the Margins

Alex Pretti’s Death Is a Code Blue for the U.S.

Alex Pretti’s Death Is a Code Blue for the U.S.

California court expedites Trump challenge to new tax returns requirement

California court expedites Trump challenge to new tax returns requirement

California's Supreme Court is expediting President Trump's challenge to a new state law that would require him to release five years of tax returns in order to get on the state ballot for the 2020 election.

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images
Bill Theobald
By Bill TheobaldAug 22, 2019
Bill Theobald

Bill Theobald is senior writer at The Fulcrum, where he focuses on everything to do with voting. This December marks his 40th anniversary in the business, and he still believes -- now more than ever -- that the glow from great journalism can truly light the world.

See More Writings by author

The California Supreme Court is fast-tracking its review of a challenge to a new law that would require President Trump to make public his tax returns in order to get on the state's ballot for the 2020 election.

A lawsuit seeking to block implementation of the law was filed August 6 by the California Republican Party against Secretary of State Alex Padilla. It claims the law violates California's constitution.

Two other challenges, one filed by Trump's personal lawyers, are pending in federal court.

Trump refused to release his tax returns during the 2016 election campaign, bucking a practice followed by every presidential candidate for decades.

The court issued an expedited schedule on Wednesday requiring attorneys on both sides to file legal papers by mid-September, including anyone who wants to file briefs supporting either side.

The California law requires presidential candidates to release five years of tax returns in order to appear on the ballot. Democrats control both houses of the California Legislature and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill in late July.


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America’s Operating System Needs an Update

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J. Scott Applewhite/Getty Images

America’s Operating System Needs an Update

As July 4, 2026, approaches, our country’s upcoming Semiquincentennial is less and less of an anniversary party than a stress test. The United States is a 21st-century superpower attempting to navigate a digitized, polarized world with an operating system that hasn’t been meaningfully updated since the mid-20th century.

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Meet the Faces of Democracy: Cisco Aguilar

Cisco Aguilar

Photo provided

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Editor’s note: More than 10,000 officials across the country run U.S. elections. This interview is part of a series highlighting the election heroes who are the faces of democracy.

Francisco “Cisco” Aguilar, a Democrat, assumed office as Nevada’s first Latino secretary of state in 2023. He also previously served for eight years on the Nevada Athletic Commission after being appointed by Gov. Jim Gibbons and Brian Sandoval. Originally from Arizona, Aguilar moved to Nevada in 2004.

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Minneapolis, Greenland, and the End of American Exceptionalism
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America’s standing in the world suffered a profound blow this January. In yet another apparent violation of international law, Donald Trump ordered the military removal of another nation’s leader—an act that would have triggered global alarm even if the target had not been Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro. Days later, the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti were broadcast around the world, fueling doubts about America’s commitment to justice and restraint. These shootings sandwiched the debacle at Davos, where Trump’s incendiary threats and rambling incoherence reinforced a growing international fear: that America’s claim to a distinctive moral and democratic character is fighting for survival.

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The Danger Isn’t History Repeating—It’s Us Ignoring the Echoes

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The instinct to look away is one of the most enduring patterns in democratic backsliding. History rarely announces itself with a single rupture; it accumulates through a series of choices—some deliberate, many passive—that allow state power to harden against the people it is meant to serve.

As federal immigration enforcement escalates across American cities today, historians are warning that the public reactions we are witnessing bear uncomfortable similarities to the way many Germans responded to Adolf Hitler’s early rise in the 1930s. The comparison is not about equating leaders or eras. It is about recognizing how societies normalize state violence when it is directed at those deemed “other.”

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