SJC again upholds MBTA Communities housing law
Justices reject challenge from Marshfield that the law imposes an ‘unfunded mandate’ on communities
As most cities and towns got into compliance with the housing law — eagerly or dragging their feet along the way — some holdouts were hoping that the state’s high court would rule that they did not have to rezone. It was a longshot bid, after the SJC already upheld the law as enforceable by the attorney general’s office in early 2025.
THE CODCAST
Where organized labor hits the ballot
Organized labor has been out in force on ballot measures — recently literally trying to secure bargaining power through the ballot — and that means manpower, mobilization, and money funneling toward a set of policy measures that the Legislature has waved away. This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith looks at unions and direct democracy with two guests.
Nick Juravich, associate professor of history and labor studies and associate director of the Labor Resource Center at UMass Boston, breaks down where we sit in the history of unions and ballot efforts. Then Chrissy Lynch, head of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, explains how the unions themselves pick their targets.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Commonwealth in depth
The Dean of Massachusetts mayors
Leominster bills itself as ‘a city on the move,’ but it hasn’t elected a new mayor in more than three decades
BY THE NUMBERS
Massachusetts political parties stand by as their membership rolls evaporate
Voters are not rejecting parties. They just don’t have a chance to join.
From the Archives
On Heritage Road
In the heart of suburbia, anxieties about the new economy
