In a new paper from A Better Balance, Local Solutions Support Center, and Equality Federation, we trace the local roots of LGBTQ+ equality in the United States and highlight the different types of abusive preemption that target local authority to protect LGBTQ+ individuals.
Read MoreStates have begun to impair or eradicate whole realms of local authority entirely. This White Paper explains the historical underpinnings of this rapidly emerging trend, the forms this preemption is taking, and the reasons why structural change to bolster local authority in the face of this new preemption is ever-more critical.
Read MoreIn a new paper from Local Solutions Support Center, Curricular Preemption: The New Front of an Old Culture War, we discuss the growing trend of curricular preemption and its impact on local school districts.
Read MorePreempting Progress: States Take Aim at Local Prosecutors examines how as local communities have called on prosecutors to use their discretion to embrace reform and a less carceral approach to criminal justice, states have intervened in an attempt to force prosecutors to continue tough-on-crime policies.
Read MoreSome states have begun to use preemption to force localities to criminalize camping in public, taking local resources away from proven solutions that could address the root causes of homelessness. Rather than solve the crisis, this preemption exacerbates it by punishing people who can find shelter nowhere else.
Read MoreAs part of the Local Solutions Support Center’s ongoing efforts to help local leaders understand and deploy their authority to address their communities’ needs, we have produced this memo outlining what local election administration involves and how it threatens democracy.
Read MoreThis White Paper considers the consequences of decreasing state aid to cities and offers some suggestions for policies that would allow municipalities to better carry out their important responsibilities as engines of local democracy.
Read MoreThis white paper captures how defending local democracy now includes a growing focus on recovering lost local authority and summarizes key lessons learned so far in the fight to repeal existing preemption.
Read MoreIn this white paper, we document how Juul has flooded statehouses with lobbyists to advance T-21 legislation – bills to raise the purchase age of tobacco to 21, but that include poison pill measures preempting local governments from further regulating tobacco products.
Read MoreThe unfortunate result of this burgeoning legislative movement to adopt statue statutes and other punitive preemption measures has been the erosion of local democracy, the stifling of local political innovation, and the undermining of local faith in the democratic process.
Read MoreThere is now an active anti-sanctuary movement aimed at eliminating the discretion that local communities have traditionally exercised over their involvement in the federal immigration enforcement efforts.
Read MoreIt is essential that state legislatures accurately represent the statewide public’s views when legislating with respect to local power. In too many states, highly gerrymandered state legislatures do not accurately represent the public’s views.
Read MoreAll preemption laws are in tension with local democracy, but punitive preemption is especially threatening. Many state preemption laws are vague around the edges; some may violate the state’s constitution or legal doctrines.
Read MoreOne of the most troubling recent trends is the rise of “blanket” preemption in the states, described by the New York Times as efforts to “…[wall] off whole new realms where local governments aren’t allowed to govern at all.”
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