Under the Cover of COVID: A Survey of 2020-2021 State Preemption Trends delves into the dangerous intersection of preemption and the pandemic – specifically, how a growing use of state interference over the last decade meant that many communities were already forced to start from behind in responding to COVID-19.

COVID & efforts to confront racial injustice and white supremacy highlight the urgent need to center the voices of the people hurt most by preemption

This report investigates arguments that justify state preemption of local lawmaking on the basis that local laws produce a harmful “patchwork” of regulations within a state. We examine the use and merits of the patchwork argument across 10 policy areas.

There has already been significant differences between state and local governments over the imposition of mandatory shelter in place orders, the need for social distancing and the definition of “essential” and “non- essential” businesses and workers. This resource takes a look at how states and cities are responding to the pandemic.

In this report, 14 authors worked as advocate-researcher co-authors to produce short articles highlighting recent research findings, emerging issues, and data and research needs across seven policy fields: Public Health; Local Fiscal Authority; Labor Policy; Environmental Policy; Civil Rights and Discrimination; Housing Policy; and Emerging Technologies.

A new report, Preempting Progress, examines how state interference in local policymaking prevents people of color, women, and low-income workers from making ends meet in the South.

As you plan for 2021 state legislative sessions, please be aware of the following anti-protest policy trends that may impact local authority and communities’ ability to exercise local democracy.

One chapter in the resource, “Preemption, Public Health, and Equity in the Time of COVID-19,” was written by Kim Haddow of Local Solutions Support Center; Derek Carr of ChangeLab Solutions; Benjamin D. Winig of ThinkForward Strategies; and Sabrina Adler of ChangeLab Solutions.

Preemption of municipal broadband is complicated – even states that have a concise statute to bar telecommunications services are complicated by questions about whether the definition of such services includes broadband.

LSSC is partnering with the National League of Cities to publish Principles of Home Rule for the 21st Century. This groundbreaking new framework lays out a vision for rebalancing state and local relations, and provides model constitutional language to encourage legal reform. But the Principles are just the beginning of a longer-term conversation necessary to ensure Americans can fully participate in local democracy, and that cities are truly equipped to advance innovative and tailor-made solutions to local problems.

In a new white paper by Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC) and True North Research, Evan Vorpahl and Lisa Graves document how Juul has flooded statehouses with lobbyists to advance T-21 legislation – bills to raise the purchase age of tobacco to 21, but that include poison pill measures preempting local governments from further regulating tobacco products.

Between January and June 2019, state legislatures across the nation continued a troubling trend of passing more laws forbidding or “preempting” local control over a large and growing set of public health, economic, environmental, and social justice policy solutions. Read LSSC’s full report here.

In the May 15th, American Prospect article, Blue City Challenge: Clawing Back Power from Red States, LSSC Director, Kim Haddow speaks about how conservatives have been using the preemption tool for several decades. Unleash Local is supporting a bill in the Louisiana State legislature, introduced by Democratic State Representative Royce Duplessis, that would overturn wage preemption once and for all. The bill would also allow cities to develop their own sick leave and vacation plans, which have also been barred by the state. The bill “doesn’t mandate anything,” Duplessis says, it “just lifts the restrictions,” though he concedes it’s “an attempt to give people an opportunity to have a living wage, just to have a fair chance.”

On April 25, 2019, in Charlottesville, Virginia, Circuit Judge Richard Moore ruled that the statues of prominent Confederate figures Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are considered war memorials protected by state law. Back in 2017, Charlottesville was the site of a rally where white nationalists protested the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee. A clash between protesters and counter-protesters turned violent, resulting in the death of Heather Heyer, which sparked a national debate over these controversial statues.

On Legal Talk Network’s Lawyer 2 Lawyer podcast, host Craig Williams is joined by Richard Schragger, professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law, and Nestor Davidson, faculty director of the Urban Law Center at Fordham University’s School of Law, to take a look at this recent ruling, the controversy over the removal of Confederate statues and what is next in this legal fight.

The Colorado legislature has approved a bill repealing a 20-year-old state law that banned cities and counties from enacting a local minimum wage higher than the state’s minimum wage. The bill now heads to Governor Jared Polis, and his signature would make Colorado the first state in the nation to repeal this type of restrictive preemption law. The measure restores the ability of local municipalities across the state to raise minimum wages and align them with local – and often rising – costs of living.

The Website, Next City published an article entitled, Colorado Bill Tries Again to Give Cities Minimum Wage Power on March 20, 2019. LSSC Director, Kim Haddow is quoted as Colorado is trying to pass Bill HB18-1368, Local Control Of Minimum Wage that would allow a unit of local government to enact laws increasing the minimum wage within its jurisdiction.

Searchable Map Highlights Prominent Examples of Local Affordable Housing Efforts Blunted by Preemption #EqualHousing

A mapping tool developed by the Local Solutions Support Center brings together research from Grounded Solutions Network, the Partnership for Working Families, the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC), the National Fair Housing Alliance, and the Urban Law Center, to document state preemption of inclusive and equitable local housing policies.

The New Republic published an article entitled “How Red States Stifle Blue Cities” on September 26, 2018 about how Republican statehouses have passed a raft of preemption bills to prevent cities from raising the minimum wage, strengthening gun control, and more.