Every president of the United States except for George Washington, Millard Filmore, Calvin Coolidge, and Lyndon Johnson have been given the oath of office by the Chief Justice of the United States. It is not constitutionally mandated that the Chief Justice do it, but that is the tradition and the key ritual that bestows legitimacy on the President. President-Elect Trump has demonstrated his unfitness for the office daily before and since the election, as has been chronicled by every major newspaper in the country including the New York Times and some at the Wall Street Journal. Besides the misogyny, racism, questions of temperament, judgment and knowledge, favoritism toward Russia, and stunning refusal of intelligence briefings, Trump is also the first President-Elect in modern history to refuse to disclose his finances, a particularly troubling fact given his extensive global network of business interests. The potential for conflicts of interest is enormous, and yet he has refused on invalid grounds to release his tax returns.  We, the signees of this petition call on the Chief Justice of the United States to refuse to administer the oath of office unless those returns are released to the Supreme Court prior to Jan. 20, 2017 and prove that he is not financially beholden to Russian financiers.

Contact:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/contact/contactus.aspx

Supreme Court of the United States
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Telephone: 202-479-3000