Carpe Momentum: Thomas Linzey on the Constitutional Right of Communities to Govern Themselves

This week I had the honor of speaking with Thomas Linzey, co-author of the peer-reviewed paper Phoenix from the Ashes: Resurrecting a Constitutional Right of Local, Community Self-Government in the Name of Environmental Sustainability. Linzey has spent his career fighting for communities to reclaim the power to protect their health, safety, and future, not as a privilege handed down from legislatures, but as a fundamental right.

In our conversation, we explore why regulatory fights are designed to fail, how Dillon’s Rule shackles local democracy, and why rights must be acknowledged from below rather than granted from above. I pressed Linzey to consider how this same framework might apply beyond environmental issues, to the crisis of gun violence and the desperate need for communities to act where Congress refuses.