This map focuses on four of these policies: protections against source-of-income discrimination, the regulation of short-term rentals, inclusionary housing programs, and rent regulation.

This post by Alina Schnake-Mahl, ScD, MPH and Leah Schinasi, MSPH, PhD focuses on state lawmakers pushing abusive preemption measures about heat protection, or neglecting to pass heat protection policies.

This white paper tells the powerful and timely story of how abusive preemption has paved the way for the rise of federal authoritarianism – and how preemption is now being used to implement that agenda.

This post by Ruqaiijah Yearby discusses how recent state efforts to prohibit DEI practices often exceed the state’s authority and conflict with long-standing legal interpretations of equality that seek to address racial discrimination.

This post by Mary Bogle explores how Americans are looking for bold new solutions to entrenched problems like poverty and income inequality. High quality experiments on GI fit squarely into this space.

This post by Sandhya Kajeepeta explores how state preemption is fueling a racialized housing crisis, and Good Cause laws are at risk

This post by Cristine Soto DeBerry explores connections between Trump’s militarized crackdowns on cities and attempts to preempt progressive prosecutors.

State lawmakers pushed more than 800 abusive preemption bills across 48 states in 2025. Many of the preemption hotspots the LSSC team tracked - from immigration to anti-DEI efforts - align with the Trump administration’s rhetoric. In fact, it’s impossible to tell the story of preemption in 2025 without considering the impact of the new administration on policy making and people.

Since 2012, a growing number of states and municipalities have taken action to protect LGBTQ+ youth from the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion “therapy.” But in recent years, amid escalating political attacks on LGBTQ+ people across virtually every aspect of life, there are also growing attacks on these protections—including through abusive preemption tactics. 

The Local Solutions Support Center has updated its resource offering brief summaries of peer-reviewed empirical studies and select additional research demonstrating the impact of these laws.

Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC) is tracking nearly 600 abusive preemption bills so far this year - a significantly higher number of bills than our team identified in all of 2024. The new federal landscape is emboldening state lawmakers to advance harmful preemption bills - with a particular focus on anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-DEI legislation.

The fourth edition of The Local Power & Politics Review explores how abusive preemption legislation has permeated so many areas of American policy. The new edition covers a wide range of issue areas – from abortion access to local environmental action to LGBTQ+ equality to prosecutorial discretion.

Our new report, Preemption’s Role in Undermining American Democracy: 2024 Legislative Session Overview, tracks the 411 abusive preemption bills LSSC identified nationwide this year across 16 different issue spaces. This report explores the major areas of everyday life where lawmakers and corporations are advancing preemption in an effort to undermine democracy.

This paper is a brief update to our earlier white paper, “Preempting Progress: States Take Aim at Local Prosecutors,” cataloging attempts to curtail the discretion of local prosecutors. In this update, we also address successful efforts to push back against the efforts to strip power from local prosecutors and the communities that elected them.

“State takeovers of public schools and districts is one prong of a multi-prong approach to dismantling resistance to oppressive legislation,” Steven L. Nelson, Ph.D. writes.

The scope of abusive preemption bills is widening – from Death Star preemption; to efforts to undermine the power of reform-oriented prosecutors; to discriminating against transgender youth; to making it harder for local officials to successfully conduct elections. LSSC’s mid-session report explores the top trends we’re tracking so far this session, as well as a few promising victories that advocates are securing.

This resource from ChangeLab Solutions and the Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC), newly updated for 2023, provides advocates with the research and data they need to document the harmful consequences of preemption and advocate for repealing inequitable preemption laws.

Despite the growing threat of abusive preemption, LSSC and our partners across the country secured important wins in 2022 – in state houses, in the courts, and in organizing spaces. We learned lessons and developed best practices that are already strengthening our work as the national hub countering abusive preemption and strengthening democracy as we head into 2023. This new report highlights some of the Local Solutions Support Center’s key activities to support the field and push back against abusive preemption in 2022.

The third edition of The Local Power & Politics Review features a series of articles that explore how abusive preemption legislation has impacted states across the country. The new edition covers a wide range of issue areas – from public health policy to local environmental action to public schools to public safety to elections.

Ramón Cruz, President of the Sierra Club, explores how some state legislatures are targeting private financial institutions in order to boycott or penalize them simply for adopting measures that consider climate change in their investments, constituting a preemption effort against proactive climate action.