New Report: “Pushing Preemption: The Corporate Campaign to Deny Municipalities Access to the Courts”

Local governments are facing higher costs than ever to protect their residents from climate change, compelling many to turn to the courts to make oil and gas corporations pay for their fair share.

In response, polluters are funding a network of dark money front groups to attack communities’ right to access the courts and seek accountability. 

Today the Center for Climate Integrity is releasing a report, “Pushing Preemption: The Corporate Campaign to Deny Municipalities Access to the Courts,” that documents the corporate-backed effort to curb communities’ access to justice and the web of shady actors at the helm. 

The story of municipal litigation spans decades, as communities have long turned to the courts to hold powerful corporations accountable for lying about the dangers their products cause. This list includes the manufacturers of tobacco, opioids, lead, asbestos, toxic chemicals, and, most recently, major fossil fuel companies responsible for the climate crisis. In many cases, such litigation serves as the only way for municipalities to recover the costs of addressing damages to their environment, public health, and local economies. 

One of the central organizations driving the campaign to protect corporations from legal liability is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In 2019, the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) published a report, “Mitigating Municipality Litigation,” that lays out specific bills that state legislatures can pass in order to restrict and eliminate legal avenues for local communities seeking justice from corporate actors.

Last year, the Chamber’s ILR published an update that focused on the growing wave of climate liability lawsuits brought on behalf of municipalities across the country — and how industry allies in state legislatures can try to quash them. 

The Chamber of Commerce is working with other national front groups such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) to attack municipal litigation on multiple fronts. 

As our report shows (see Section III), individual corporations — including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and Koch Industries — fund front groups to carry out their dirty work. At the helm are the Chamber, which advocates for preemption bills and files amicus briefs backing Big Oil in court; ALEC, which provides the legislative proposals that states can use as templates to preempt municipal litigation, and NAM, which runs smear campaigns directed at public interest organizations and elected officials supporting communities’ efforts at accountability.

This network of front groups uses the same strategies that were employed to shield countless other industries — i.e. Big Tobacco, asbestos, lead paint, and guns — from legal liability.

Since 2019, municipal litigation preemption bills have been introduced in Arizona, Florida, Ohio, and Kansas, and one passed in Texas. These bills employ the same tactics recommended by the Chamber, such as preventing municipalities from hiring outside counsel and granting the state attorney general the power to prohibit local governments from filing suit.

But elected officials can take action on behalf of their communities and protect and expand their right to seek justice. Our report recommends ways that elected officials can recognize preemption legislation before it becomes law, repeal preemption legislation through the courts and state legislatures, and take proactive measures to make it easier for communities to hold corporations accountable.

You can read the full report, “Pushing Preemption: The Corporate Campaign to Deny Municipalities Access to the Courts,” here.