LSSC is piecing together the big takeaways from this year’s sessions - and the result is an alarming picture of how preemption is playing a central role in larger efforts to weaken American democracy.
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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.
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This memo from Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC), the hub dedicated to defending and advancing local democracy, details the trends our team is tracking during the first three months of the 2024 legislative season.
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The piece was written by Jessy Correa, a program manager with Cornerstone Connections in Orange County, and a survivor of domestic violence who advocates for women; and Santra Denis, executive director of the Miami Workers Center.
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Lawmakers in Tallahassee are poised to wrap regular session later next week (3/8), but there are a number of abusive preemption bills we’re tracking between now and then.
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In 2024, state lawmakers are once again seeking to undermine local democracy and take power away from people and communities with preemption bills that weaken our democracy and the ability of everyone to participate in it. Here are a few states, initiatives, and bills to have on your radar in the days ahead.
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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.
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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.
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“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. “
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“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,
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“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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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During the 2023 state legislative session Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC) is publishing a weekly digest summarizing notable abusive preemption bills and their progress through session.
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“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.”
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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.
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