Kajeepeta 1

A 2024 paper examined state takeovers across four main policy areas traditionally reserved to localities, including education (e.g. local school districts); finances (e.g. economically distressed municipalities); the criminal legal system (e.g. policing, prosecutors, and judges), and voting (e.g. local election administration) and showed that such state interference increasingly is being used in majority-Black cities. Evidence to date suggests that these state takeovers are not only anti-democratic but also result in suppressing local Black political power and undermining the political will of Black voters. Read more in Sandhya Kajeepeta, When the State Takes Over: How State Officials Usurping Local Control Threatens Local Black Political Power, 52 Fordham Urb. L.J.