Law360, New York ( June 23, 2015, 10:56 AM EDT) -- On June 2, 2015, the Suffolk County Legislature became the latest county legislature in New York to pass a "toxic-free toys" act. About a week later, the New York City Council got in on the action and introduced a similar bill. Since the beginning of the year, five county legislatures in New York (Albany, Suffolk, Westchester, Dutchess and Onondaga) and the New York City Council have either passed, or are in the process of considering, laws to supposedly stem the flow of unsafe children's products onto local store shelves. The actions of these localities raise the fundamental legal and policy question: do local governments, such as county legislatures or town councils, have a legitimate role in regulating consumer products, a role typically reserved for the federal, and in some instances, state governments? Clearly, these local governments believe that they do, as do the consumer and environmental organizations behind the effort. Yet the answer is not as simple as it may seem....