In a new paper from A Better Balance, Local Solutions Support Center, and Equality Federation, we highlight the different types of abusive preemption that target local authority to protect LGBTQ+ individuals. 

To strengthen this defense against prosecutorial preemption, we need a multi-pronged approach: we must continually monitor and assess of strategies’ effectiveness, we must correct false media narratives, and we must build coalitions with communities to ensure that the approaches they support are allowed to flourish.  

“If we want to create policy that solves housing problems and endures across the shifting whims of politics, we cannot rely on simple rubrics dictating that local is good, while state is bad, or vice versa. We need to propose solutions that actually solve problems, rather than just stymie the level of government in which the opposite political party holds power. “

“New preemption” is moving in a dangerous new direction, with states not just targeting specific local policy decisions but rather impairing or eradicating whole realms of local authority entirely,

“Citizens are recognizing the effects of preemption and other forms of state- and interest-driven control over their lives and communities, and they are fighting back in both traditional and non-traditional ways.”

LSSC’s latest report, Protecting Local Democracy: 2023 Legislative Session Overview, explores all the preemption trends that played out in states across the country this past year. The report also highlights what issues advocates are most concerned about as we head into 2024 – from an uptick in efforts to remove duly elected prosecutors from office, to how preemption is abused to undermine local election authority.

This post was written by Steven L. Nelson, J.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor/Department Chair, Educational Psychology, Leadership, & Higher Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The scope of abusive preemption bills are 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 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 is now live and features a series of articles that explore abusive preemption legislation when it comes to public health authority, elections, climate change, and more.

“This year, as ALEC marks its 50th anniversary, national groups representing hundreds of thousands of Americans are coming together to make sure more Americans understand just how harmful ALEC’s legacy has been.”

In a new paper from Local Solutions Support Center, Curricular Preemption: The New Front of an Old Culture War, we discuss the growing trend of curricular preemption and its impact on local school districts.

This toolkit was created to help implement findings from “Connecting the Dots: How to Message the Abuse of State Preemption.” More specifically, this toolkit was designed with the aim to provide guidance on how to plan and execute organizing campaigns using online tools.

In this post Ramón Cruz 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.  

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.

In this post 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.

In the latest post of our 2022 Research Cohort blog series, 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.

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. This new white paper calls attention to this alarming new preemption trend and begins the conversation with cities about fighting back.

The Local Solutions Support Center is excited to continue a blog series featuring our 2022 Research Cohort. Each month, a member of our Research Cohort will explore a different topic and its connection to preemption. Here, Courtnee Melton-Fant shares the story of Boxtown, a majority black neighborhood in Memphis harmed by the abuse of preemption.

We’re excited to release a new series of message frames designed to help you talk about preemption through different lenses and to different audiences.