{"id":1980,"date":"2008-11-14T16:07:06","date_gmt":"2008-11-14T21:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=1980"},"modified":"2008-11-14T16:27:04","modified_gmt":"2008-11-14T21:27:04","slug":"laboraties-of-democracy-at-the-local-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2008\/11\/laboraties-of-democracy-at-the-local-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Laboratories of Democracy at the Local Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Matt Parlow <\/a>has\u00a0a thought-provoking\u00a0new article in print: Progressive Policy-Making on the Local Level: Rethinking Traditional Notions of Federalism<\/em>, 17 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 371 (2008).\u00a0 (A draft can be downloaded here<\/a>.)\u00a0 Matt\u00a0contends that the oft-quoted argument\u00a0of Justice Brandeis (pictured to the left) that states\u00a0may appropriately\u00a0serve as laboraties for “novel social and economic experiments” applies equally\u00a0well —\u00a0indeed, perhaps even better — to cities and other local\u00a0units of\u00a0government.\u00a0 Citing recent immigration initiatives and living wage ordinances (including one in Madison, Wisconsin), Matt notes a long history of local-level policy innovation in this country.\u00a0 He argues,<\/p>\n

Because they are smaller in size, local governments are more capable of being responsive to the needs of their respective communities because they are more in touch with their constituents.\u00a0 This leads, in theory, to more responsive and representative policy-making as local government officials make decisions informed by the community’s wants and needs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In light of these considerations, Matt argues against the tendency of some courts to squelch local initiatives through narrow constructions of home rule powers and liberal invocations of the implied preemption doctrine.<\/p>\n

All of this connects nicely to the recent, lively discussion on this Blog of Milwaukee’s ballot initiative\u00a0mandating paid sick leave for employees<\/a>.\u00a0 I take it that Matt would be skeptical of arguments that the Milwaukee law is preempted by state and federal law — at the least, his analysis would suggest some good reasons why a court ought to be slow to find preemption.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Matt’s article also reminds me of the argument of Dan Kahan and Tracey Meares (which I blogged about here<\/a>) that federal constitutional limitations should be relaxed so as to permit more creative responses to crime\u00a0at the local level.\u00a0 Kahan and Meares\u00a0are careful to note that their position is premised on the capacity of minority communities — which are the communities\u00a0most directly affected by crime and policing\u00a0— to participate effectively in local-level policymaking.\u00a0 Their concerns regarding the\u00a0political power (or lack thereof) of affected communities\u00a0might give one pause regarding recent\u00a0anti-immigrant initiatives at the local level (which I do not see Matt to be embracing as a model).<\/p>\n

For myself, I am quite sympathetic to the localist project.\u00a0 For instance, I have advocated for more local control over the way the war on drugs is waged (57 Vand. L. Rev. 783).\u00a0 Thus, I think it is unfortunate that the federal government has attempted to stamp out locally approved and regulated medical marijuana distribution operations in California.\u00a0 But I also think (in the spirit of\u00a0Kahan & Meares) that cities that want to be more aggressive about drug enforcement — more checkpoints, drug tests, sniffer dogs, etc. — should have ample\u00a0room to implement their policy preferences.\u00a0 (I may not want to live in such a city myself, but that is another matter.)\u00a0 Likewise, although I did not support the Milwaukee\u00a0sick leave initiative on the merits, my\u00a0preference for local autonomy and experimentation leaves me hoping that the courts will provide an opportunity for the initiative to prove its worth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Parlow has\u00a0a thought-provoking\u00a0new article in print: Progressive Policy-Making on the Local Level: Rethinking Traditional Notions of Federalism, 17 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 371 (2008).\u00a0 (A draft can be downloaded here.)\u00a0 Matt\u00a0contends that the oft-quoted argument\u00a0of Justice Brandeis (pictured to the left) that states\u00a0may appropriately\u00a0serve as laboraties for “novel social and economic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,28,53,33,35,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-justice","category-criminal-law-process","category-federalism","category-labor-employment-law","category-legal-scholarship","category-milwaukee","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}