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Design Challenges for Human Rights Cities

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Design Challenges for Human Rights Cities DESIGN CHALLENGES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS CITIES Martha F. Davis* INTRODUCTION In mid-November 2016, shortly after the results of the presidential election were confirmed, political scientist Benjamin Barber presciently opined that "[clities are going to become the most important, constructive alternative to a Trump agenda."' Barber acknowledged that it might be difficult for a single city, acting alone, to stand up to the federal government.2 But working together, he observed, cities have tremendous power, particularly because in combination they represent the majority of Americans who voted against a Trump presidency.' Indeed, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, at the beginning of 2017, two thirds of the mayors from the 100 largest cities in the United States were registered Democrats.4 In crafting alternatives to federal policies, however, city mayors act in a tradition that has not always resulted in the expansion of human rights. History underscores that there is nothing inevitably progressive about city politics.' For example, in 1961, the * Associate Dean for Experiential Education and Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law, Boston, MA. Thanks to Anna Maria Annino and Mitchell Kosht for their research assistance, Dan Jackson and Jules Sievert for their expertise, and Jennifer True for administrative support. 1. Max de Haldevang, "Cities will be a Powerful Antidote to Donald Trump": Social Scientist Benjamin Barber on the Emergence of a New Urban Radicalism, QUARTZ (Nov. 15, 2016), https://qz.com/837383/cities-will-be-a- powerful-antidote-to-donald-trump-social-scientist-benjamin-barber-on-the- emergence-of-a-new-urban-radicalism/. 2. Id. 3. Id. 4. List of Current Mayors of the Top 100 Cities in the United States, BALLOTPEDIA, https://ballotpedia.org/List-of current-mayors of thetop_100 cities intheUnitedStates (last visited Sept. 30, 2017) (information drawn from U.S. Census data). 5. Paul Diller, Intrastate Preemption, 87 B.U. L. REV. 1113, 1120-21 (2009) (noting that "city policymaking does not necessarily tilt in any particular ideological direction" and citing examples). 28 COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW [49.1:1 city manager of Newburgh, New York promoted a harsh plan of welfare benefit cuts that violated both state and federal law, arguing that the low-income residents of the town were "moral chiselers and loafers."' Similarly, in Buffalo, New York in the 1970s, several successive mayors vigorously opposed school desegregation, thwarting federal court orders and prolonging litigation over the issue. 7 Yet the American political spectrum has become more polarized in the ensuing decades, reflected in a more dramatic split between rural America, which tends to hold conservative values, and urban America, which tends to hold liberal values.' In rural areas, residents can perhaps imagine that they are self-sufficient and that their individual welfare may be secured without government assistance.? In contrast, most city dwellers and city leaders understand that their own rights may be contingent on the government's provision of basic services, if not to themselves, then to the neighbors with whom they share the urban space.'o As a practical matter, given the scope of their responsibilities, city leaders have tremendous opportunities to advance human rights. Among other things, cities must deliver water, sewage treatment, trash removal, road maintenance, public transportation, public safety, and education to their residents." For good or ill, whether or 6. KAREN TANI, STATES OF DEPENDENCY: WELFARE RIGHTS AND AMERICAN GOVERNANCE, 1935-1972 6 (2016) (quoting Joseph McDowell Mitchell, City Manager, Newburgh, NY, Address (1961) (transcript available in the Elizabeth Wickenden Papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society)). 7. STEVEN TAYLOR, DESEGREGATION IN BOSTON AND BUFFALO: THE INFLUENCE OF LOCAL LEADERS 116-18 (1998). 8. Emily Badger, The Real Reason Cities Lean Democratic, CITYLAB (Nov. 15, 2012), http://www.citylab.com/politics/2012/11/political-map-weve-been- waiting/3908/; see also Lazaro Gamlo, Urban and Rural America are Becoming Increasingly Polarized, WASH. POST (Nov. 17, 2016), https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/urban-rural-vote- swing/ (explaining the recent urban-rural vote polarization); Dante J. Scala & Kenneth M. Johnson, Political Polarization Along the Rural-Urban Continuum? The Geography of the PresidentialVote, 2000-2016, 672 ANNALS AM. ACAD. POL. & Soc. SCI. 162, 168-70 (2017) (exploring variations in political attitudes and voting patterns between urban and rural as a continuum rather than a polarization). 9. Badger, supra note 8. 10. Id.; see also Christopher M. Huggins & Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl, Tolerance in the City: The Multi-Level Effects of Urban Environments on Permissive Attitudes, 37 J. URB. AFF. 255, 259 (2015) ("[C]ities have significant effects on their residents net of demographic composition."). 11. See, e.g., Explaining Federal, State and Local Government Responsibilities in Virginia, FAIRFAX CTY. VA., http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dmb/ 2017] Design Challenges for Human Rights Cities 29 not they explicitly acknowledge it, cities and city leaders are addressing a wide range of human rights in their day-to-day operations, generally with minimal federal oversight and decreasing levels of direct financial support.1 2 Some U.S. cities have gone further to make their human rights commitments explicit, joining a host of international cities and regions in declaring themselves to be human rights cities that will take human rights norms into account in setting city policy.'a However vigorously and overtly city leaders take on the task of realizing their constituents' human rights, there are structural challenges baked into the governance structure of the United States that may impede cities' capacities to act. State pre-emption is one threat to city laws and policies in many substantive areas. 4 Almost two decades ago, Professor Gerald Frug wrote about the ways in which states could frustrate cities' efforts to address the welfare of urban residents by using zoning laws to diffuse local power to the federal-state-local-government-responsibilities.pdf (describing responsibilities at each level of government). Each of these functions is generally encompassed within the economic and social rights framework. See G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI) (Dec. 16, 1966). 12. See Meghan Randall et al., Federal Aid to Local Governments, URBAN INST. 1-2 (Sept. 2016), http://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2016.09. 07 state-of citiesfact sheet.pdf (noting decreasing levels of direct per capita federal support for cities since the 1980s and describing the various ways in which federal agencies defer to localities in the administration of aid and grants). 13. See STEPHEN MARKS ET AL., HUMAN RIGHTS CITIES: CIVIC ENGAGEMENT FOR SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT (2008), http://www.pdhre.org/ HumanRightsCitiesBook.pdf (providing general background on human rights cities); Washington, D.C., Human Rights City Resolution, AM. FRIENDS SERV. COMM., https://www.afsc.org/resource/washington-dc-human-rights-city-resolution (last visited Sept. 16, 2017) (stating that, in the United States, Washington, D.C., is a human rights city); Mark Noack, Mountain View Signs Up As Human Rights City, MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE (Dec. 23, 2016), https://www.mv-voice.com/print/ story/2016/12/23/mountain-view-signs-up-as-human-rights-city (showing that Mountain View, California, is also a human rights city); see also CITY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW CITY COUNCIL, COUNCIL REPORT: HUMAN RIGHTS CITY DESIGNATION, CITY OF MOUNTAIN VIEW (Dec. 13, 2016); Kenneth Neubeck, In a State of Becoming a Human Rights City, in GLOBAL URBAN JUSTICE: THE RISE OF HUMAN RIGHTS CITIES 240 (Barbara Oomen et al. eds., 2016) (listing other human rights cities in the United States, including Boston, Pittsburgh, and Chapel Hill). 14. See NAT'L LEAGUE OF CITIES, CITY RIGHTS IN AN ERA OF PREEMPTION: A STATE BY STATE ANALYSIS 1 (2017) ("[Sltate legislators have stricken down laws passed by city leaders in four crucial areas of local governance: economics, social policy, health and safety."). 30 COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW [49.1:1 suburbs." Instances of state pre-emption have only expanded since then, with states overriding local living wage regulations, municipal civil rights laws, tobacco regulations, and many other local initiatives."e In the human rights arena, city policies may face an additional set of impediments. If the courts have deemed the federal government to occupy a field in which a city is also developing policies, the prospect of federal pre-emption raises a separate set of challenges beyond state pre-emption." Because the federal government exercises authority over the nation's foreign affairs, federal challenges may be particularly acute for cities that have formally incorporated international human rights norms into their local laws and policies." 15. GERALD FRUG, CITY-MAKING: BUILDING COMMUNITIES WITHOUT BUILDING WALLS 3-4 (1999). More recently, state pre-emption was the issue when the State of Texas passed legislation designed to restrict local governments from limiting their information-sharing with the federal government. See, e.g., Marievel Santiago, Sanctuary Cities Officially Banned in Texas as SB4 Becomes Law, KXAN (May 8, 2017, 7:56 AM), http://kxan.com/2017/05/07/gov-greg-abbott- signs-sanctuary-cities-bill-on-facebook-livel (discussing passage of the ban on sanctuary cities in Texas). 16. See, e.g., Alan Blinder, When a State Balks at
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