Authoritarianism is on the rise in the United States. Many federal officials and their corporate allies are using fear to consolidate power and profit. They’re building on decades of abusive state preemption, which has eroded local democracy while curbing freedom and opportunity for people - specifically BIPOC, LGBTQ+, women, immigrants, and working people.
Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC) is the national hub fueling efforts to confront abusive preemption, dismantle systems of oppression, and strengthen local democracy.
Our Vision & Guiding Values
We believe a healthy democracy should allow historically excluded people to build power and exercise agency over their own lives and communities. State preemption of local policymaking should only be used to protect the health and well-being of residents, and should create the foundation upon which localities can go further in advancing equity and addressing their communities’ needs. Unfortunately, preemption today is being abused specifically to undermine a healthy democracy and harm people. Too often, elected officials feel more accountable to oligarchs than their own constituents.
We are committed to building a more just and equitable society. To achieve that, we fuel a diverse and growing ecosystem of advocates and organizations working to combat abusive preemption and dismantle longstanding systems of oppression. We approach this work through a co-governance framework rooted in a commitment to racial and economic equity. This allows the voices and needs of those most harmed by abusive preemption – BIPOC, LGBTQ+ people, women, immigrants, and working people - to be centered in our communities.
We’re invested in achieving the reforms necessary to bring about a more just and equitable society. This includes updating home rule and recommitting to local democracy - so that local elected officials and constituents have the power they need to make decisions for their communities. It means growing awareness of the long history and ongoing harms wrought by abusive preemption. These are the ways we’ll succeed in returning power to the people and strengthening our local democracies.
We strive to center the following values in all of our work:
Impact:
We strive to have a tangible, lasting, and positive impact on people, communities, and our democracy.
Collaboration & Partnership:
We recognize that we are more than the sum of our parts and operate as a hub dedicated to building deep and meaningful connections and alliances across issues, constituencies, communities, and sectors.
Respect:
We value the skills, experiences, identities, and perspectives of our team, our partners, and those impacted most by the abuse of preemption.
Nimble & Responsive:
We adapt to a quickly changing landscape while also centering the perspectives and engagement of the most impacted communities in our decision-making and planning.
Resilient:
We remain steadfast in our commitment to our long-term vision, mission, desired impact, and these values, even in tumultuous times and challenging situations.
Honest & Transparent:
We believe in sharing timely and direct information, resources, expertise, and background about our decisions in order to support and maximize the impact of the collective preemption ecosystem.
Innovative:
We challenge ourselves to continuously learn from each other and our partners, and reflect on lessons of our work. We identify opportunities to refine, modify, cease, or create new efforts to further our values and meet the needs of the communities and people most impacted by the abuse of preemption.
LSSC’s Strategic Priorities
1
Foster and support cross-movement collaboration by listening to and engaging directly with local leaders and advocates through state campaign coalitions, providing campaign planning support, conducting peer-to-peer trainings, and functioning as a hub to conduct our work in tandem with our partners, driven by their needs and the needs of the communities they serve. State campaigns and local leadership are at the heart of our approach and drive and inform the resources LSSC develops and disseminates across the preemption ecosystem.
2
Demonstrate the consequences of abusive preemption
that excludes and harms BIPOC, LGBTQ+ people, women, immigrants, and working people by commissioning research, convening and expanding a diverse network of academics and researchers, and connecting and translating research to action in the field. This work provides opportunities to create deeper connections between advocates and academics as well as between today’s abuse of preemption with historic and current systems of oppression.
3
Create the public imperative for reform
by developing strategic communications and earned and social media efforts, conducting messaging research, and producing messaging resources, talking points, and digital toolkits to increase and support the adoption of research-tested best practices. We must elevate the narrative about the abuse of preemption out of issue silos and educate and engage communities on the larger issue of strengthening local democracy.
4
Provide the resources and technical support
necessary to fuel the ecosystem’s work of confronting abusive preemption, dismantling systems of oppression, and strengthening local democracy. This can include things like analyses of bills, strategies for advancing structural reform, amicus briefs, issue-specific expertise, and communications support.
How We Provide Support to Partners
The Local Solutions Support Center’s (LSSC) communications, legal, research, and state campaigns teams all offer ongoing, tailored support to our partners. Here’s an overview of the services each of our team provides.
Communications
The LSSC Communications team prioritizes: (1) driving a national media narrative; (2) supporting state communication efforts; and (3) advancing communication best practices and supporting message development. The team offers a number of resources for advocates and partners, including:
Communication Strategies
Media Lists + Amplification
Content Development
Messaging Resources
Social Media & Graphics
Brainstorm Partner
Research
LSSC’s research team provides the qualitative and quantitative data people need to challenge abusive state preemption laws and advance home rule reform. The team focuses its efforts on (1) cultivating and identifying research documenting the consequences of abusive state preemption; (2) translating research into action-oriented communications; (3) disseminating research to inform advocacy efforts; and (4) funding new research to meet the needs of the field. The research team pays particularly close attention to research demonstrating the direct effects of preemption on issues affecting public health and health equity; LGBTQ+ rights; economic well-being; racial disparities; civic engagement and local democracy; and local innovation.
For on-demand research needs, LSSC convenes a “research cohort” composed of leading scholars with substantive expertise across a range of issues.
Legal
The LSSC legal team is comprised of our consultants as well as Local Progress and the LSSC Professors Network. Between these resources, LSSC provides the following services to ensure that advocates and coalitions are fully equipped to protect democracy and further the anti-preemptive agenda: (1) legislative bill analysis; (2) legal training; (3) white papers and scholarship; (4) legal strategy memos; (5) amicus briefs; (6) research and analysis; and (7) litigation support.
Technical Bill Analysis: A technical bill analysis is a memo or conversation about the substantive elements of a proposed bill or law. Generally the analysis will answer narrow legal questions about a bill or analyze the entire bill to evaluate its scope and impact as well as any legal risks that the bill may pose. This analysis is typically useful during the legislative session to inform advocacy efforts and lobbying.
Legal Training: The legal team offers several types of general public legal informational training for advocates, such as training on preemption bill trends or the impact of preemption lawsuits. These legal trainings are coupled with best practices across the country to develop organizing strategy around a bill or law or to educate about a larger national trend in preemption. It is generally used to help develop policy strategy around issues.
White Papers & Scholarship: White papers and legal scholarship are a longer form of legal analysis that provide an extensive and comprehensive understanding of preemption trends - these are typically written in consultation with the professor network and other leaders on preemption issues across the country.
Legal Strategy Memos: Memos are written overviews that provide analysis for possible approaches to challenging the lawfulness or constitutionality of a proposed bill or enacted law. These tools typically help advocates understand the legality of a bill.
Amicus Briefs: These legal tools are written documents filed in a lawsuit by a non party to support one of the parties’ stated position. Amicus briefs help provide support during litigation by offering a unique point of view to the court on a controversial case that have larger implications for the law.
Research and Analysis: Legal research and analysis are critical to proper interpretation of bills and laws that preempt local authority Proper legal research and analysis are necessary to inform advocates of the legal implications of pending and current legislation. LSSC does not enter into attorney-client relationships with stakeholders, but does provide important public information based on deep research and analysis.
Litigation: A lawsuit filed in court that seeks to stop a preemptive law from being enforced or to challenge the legality of the law. LSSC helps with thought partnership and raising the salience of this critical tool.
State Campaigns
The LSSC State Campaigns team administers technical assistance to our affirmative and defensive core states, including. (1) developing intra- and inter- state coalitions; (2) generating and administering public education resources; (3) hosting and organizing virtual trainings for advocates and allies; (4) briefings on best strategies for local and state advocacy engagement; and (5) connecting partners with external stakeholders to foster issue-specific sustainable networks.
Advocacy resources include:
Public education events to inform audiences about abusive preemption and home rule reform;
Virtual advocacy training and workshops;
Organizational tools for coalition project management;
Subject matter expertise and information sharing;
Support coalition infrastructure to ensure sustainability; and
Connection of local advocates with legal, research, and communication resources and advocacy materials.