Resources

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.

Preempting 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.

Some 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.

As 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.

SSC’s new 2022 Mid-Session report looks at how state elected officials are continuing to undermine local authority on topics ranging from educational curriculum to voting rights to labor laws to LGBTQ equality.

This model ordinance can serve as a guide for local elected officials in their attempts to enact tenant protections in their city or town.

The Local Solutions Support Center has compiled short memos summarizing the nature and scope of local authority in each state.

This groundbreaking new framework lays out a vision for rebalancing state and local relations, and provides model constitutional language to encourage legal reform.

Home rule reform, like abusive preemption, can be difficult to explain – even if you’re doing this work day-in and day-out. That’s why our national table is releasing new message guidance to help advocates make the case for home rule reform and move people to action. This guidance is meant to help you explain what home rule reform is and why action is urgently needed now.

The Local Solutions Support Center has designed a toolkit to help organizers understand what public health authority preemption looks like and how to talk about it in a way that’s both accessible to broader audiences, and effective.

The audience of this survey was likely 2018 voters living in the following states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Tennessee, selected based on frequent state legislative preemption.

This polling from the African-American Research Collaborative found that it is most helpful to engage voters through a policy position and then transition to a discussion of how to influence state government to make positive change.

In recent years the Local Solutions Support Center has partnered repeatedly with The Campaign Workshop to create message-tested digital advertising toolkits for local partners.

This message guide will help you explain how existing and new state preemption has left local governments and people vulnerable to the pandemic, worsened inequities, and weakened efforts to protect public health.

This webinar features the results of research about preemption and home rule, published in November 2019.

Working closely with the Local Solutions Support Center, PerryUndem conducted six focus groups with voters in late May-early June 2019 to test messages about preemption and home rule.

This webinar, presented August 12, 2019, focuses on messaging research about preemption.

When it comes to their views on government and passing new laws or ordinances, Florida voters tend to take a more positive view of local government than of state government. Full results.

A recent statewide survey reveals that Florida voters have a more favorable opinion of local governments, such as City Councils or County Commissions, than they do of the Florida State Legislature and believe local governments are better connected to the community than state government.

This guide provides topline messages, best examples, and language do’s and don’ts to keep in mind when talking about home rule.

This guide provides topline messages, best examples, and language do’s and don’ts to keep in mind when talking about preemption.

Across the United States, local governments have developed and implemented innovative solutions to improve their communities, and in some cases, that has led to wider adoption of those policies by other communities or even the state.

This slideshow summarizes a 2019 survey of Missouri voters on preemption-related issues.

This slideshow summarizes a 2019 survey of Minnesota voters on preemption-related issues.

This slideshow summarizes a 2019 survey of Florida voters on preemption-related issues.

This slideshow summarizes a 2019 survey of Texas voters on preemption-related issues.

We Decide TN is a coalition of groups from across TN, brought together to empower local communities against state interference.

The purpose of this summer series will be to provide insight on how the LSSC team works together to provide resources to the field to address preemption and upholding local democracy.

In recent years the Local Solutions Support Center has partnered repeatedly with The Campaign Workshop to create message-tested digital advertising toolkits for local partners.

On April 30, Odessa Kelly and Whitney Washington at Stand Up Nashville; Kelly Sue Waller at Bedford County Listening Project; and Bennett Foster at Memphis for All hosted a webinar focused on the Tennessee Campaign to Suspend State Preemption During COVID-19 Public Health Crisis.

Kim Haddow at Local Solutions Support Center; Desiree Westlund Cindric at United for a New Economy; and Laura Huizar at Local Solutions Support Center and the National Employment Law Center hosted a webinar focused on lessons learned from efforts to repeal preemption laws.

In this webinar from September 25, 2019, Ida Eskamani of Organize Florida presents on preemption work during Florida’s 2019 legislative session.

LSSC helps to coordinate and create opportunities to counter the increasing state abuse of preemption and working to strengthen local democracies so they have they have the authority they need to protect and promote the health and safety of their residents.

You name it, and preemption can likely touch it. Most states have some form of preemption laws on their books.

This guide provides topline messages, best examples, and language do’s and don’ts to keep in mind when talking about preemption.

Cities and counties may have legal options to counter this growing reality of state interference, even though it can be difficult in many situations to challenge state preemption.

“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.

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.  

Preeti Chauhan explores how some prosecutors are using their own discretion to create a less punitive and a more fair and equitable criminal legal system – and how state preemption can impact their ability to do so.

Mildred E. Warner of Cornell University explores how abusive state preemption legislation suppresses wages, undermining inclusive growth. Warner explains how we can promote more inclusive growth by raising returns to labor.

Courtnee Melton-Fant shares the story of Boxtown, a majority black neighborhood in Memphis harmed by the abuse of preemption.

In this report, LSSC tracks how abusive preemption was used during the 2022 legislative session by state lawmakers at the behest of corporations to undermine local authority, particularly on public health authority, LGBTQ rights, and democracy & voting rights.

“New Jersey is a place with two major stories in land use today,” Noah Kazis writes. “One led by the state against local prerogatives, and one led by localities themselves. Understanding the relationship between those two stories may teach us much about what preemption can and can’t do.”

In the name of personal responsibility, individual freedom, the free market, and partisanship, many states are preventing local leaders from protecting workers, low-income families, public health, the environment, among others, while failing to do so themselves. What is a locality to do?

This resource provides advocates with the research and data they need to document the harmful consequences of preemption and advocate for repealing inequitable preemption laws.

The second edition features a series of articles that explore how some states preempted local authority across a host of issues during the pandemic.

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.

A new white paper from LSSC explores in more detail how some state legislatures are using preemption to undermine local control of police budgeting, accountability, and management.

This new report highlights how state lawmakers in the Midwest have abused preemption to impede progress on a variety of issues that would improve the economic security and well-being of residents. 

The Local Solutions Support Center’s (LSSC) report explores 2021 legislative activity in more detail. Overall in the session, LSSC tracked over 400 preemption bills – more than two times the number of bills tracked during the 2019 session.

This report reveals how the growing abuse of preemption over the last decade forced many municipalities to start from behind when responding to the pandemic, and highlights the issue areas advocates are preparing to defend from state interference in the months ahead.