Entrenching Inequity, Eroding Democracy: State Preemption of Local Housing Policies

State preemption of local law is a powerful institutional mechanism that state legislatures deploy to inhibit or nullify municipal policy. Research to date has focused primarily on explaining the patterning and causes of preemption, with very little emphasis on understanding its political consequences. Michener will discuss how tenant organizations that build power in race-class subjugated communities understand and respond to state preemption and consider the consequences for democracy.