Now that the Delta variant’s rapid spread has again sparked showdowns over masking orders, school and business closings and vaccine passports between state and local governments nationwide, LSSC has reprised this once-a-week recap.

Only a handful of states have targeted municipal police reform, but left unchecked, such preemption strategies will likely spread to other states. And without scrutiny, some states will feel emboldened to encroach further on municipal ability to control and reform their police departments.

A 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 “A Session Like No Other” explores the 2021 legislative session, during which Republican-led state legislatures unleashed a wave of preemption bills blocking, removing, or penalizing local authority – a direct response to the pandemic, the growing movement for racial justice, and the presidential election.

This year, state lawmakers introduced a history making number of preemption laws that limit local lawmaking, weaken local democracy, and block local policies intended to advance economic and racial inequity. Here is a snapshot, a still frame of where legislative activity on some policies stand as of Monday, April 26, 2021.

“Conflict between state and local governments has cost lives, delayed effective responses, and created confusion that continues to undermine public health efforts.”

This fact sheet summarizes this emerging threat to state and local public health authority and identifies some of the possible outcomes.

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.