New Resource: 2021 – An Unprecedented Year for Abusive Preemption
This week the Local Solutions Support Center published a new resource that takes a look back at 2021, an unprecedented year for abusive preemption. It examines the landscape for preemption and highlights what the LSSC team accomplished last year. Take a look here.
Introduction to 2021: An Unprecedented Year for Abusive Preemption
2021 was an unprecedented year for abusive preemption. As local elected officials and advocates sought to protect their communities from the ongoing public health and economic effects of the pandemic, they encountered preemption efforts from state lawmakers on a scale never before seen:
More than 475 preemption bills were introduced in state legislatures last year – well over twice the number seen in 2019, the last “regular” session prior to the pandemic.
More than 70 of those bills came from Florida and Texas alone.
Many of the bills shared common – and dangerous – themes. They sought to curtail public health authority, undermine local budget control, stifle voting rights, and advance animus against BIPOC and transgender communities.
Against this backdrop, the LSSC team ramped up our efforts to meet the demand. We approach our work to combat abusive preemption and support partners on the ground across four strategies - fostering and supporting cross-movement collaboration; demonstrating the consequences of preemption; rebalancing the power between state and local governments.
Our team spent the year creating new legal resources, research, media materials, and providing technical support to partners across the country. We worked to ensure our partners had the tools and support they needed to succeed; to strengthen the network of researchers and legal experts engaging on preemption; and to amplify in the press how preemption is often used to uphold inequitable systems and entrench white supremacy.