Lawmakers that were kicked out of the state House are expected to be sent back
The Nashville Metropolitan Council Appoints a Reply to the House of Representatives 52 after a Protest on the House Floor Marching for Gun Law Reforms
The Nashville Metropolitan Council voted 36-0 Monday to reappoint Jones to the House of Representatives, making him once again the representative of House District 52 – but this time in the interim. Interim House members can be appointed until an election is held for the expelled lawmakers.
The two former Democratic lawmakers, who were expelled by Republican colleagues after they staged a protest on the House floor calling for gun law reforms, say they want their seats back.
“What happened was a travesty of democracy because they expelled the two youngest Black lawmakers, which is no coincidence from the Tennessee Legislature,” Jones said Friday on “CNN This Morning.” “Because we are outspoken, because we fight for our district.”
130,000 Black voters are without a seat in the House. Gloria Johnson, who is white and also led the protest, was not expelled by one vote.
The attack against us is hurting all people in the state, he said. “Even though it is disproportionately impacting Black and brown communities, this is hurting poor white people … silencing them.”
Replacing Rep. Jones to the Tennessee House: Motions Against Proton Protests in Nashville on Capitol Hill 57 Against a Demonstration
According to an email sent out by a council member, Jim Shulman is calling for a meeting of the Metropolitan Council on Monday to discuss filling the empty District 52 House seat.
“While this is what the residents of Nashville deserve, we must recognize that Rep. Jones was reappointed to his position not because the Republican majority did the right thing, but because Rep. Jones’ constituents in Nashville, joined by supporters from all over our country, peacefully voiced their concerns about the prevalence of gun violence in our communities and the ongoing assault by Republicans on our democracy,” the statement read.
After the council appoints an interim House representative nominee, the county will hold a special election — in which Jones is eligible to run — to carry out the term.
Mickell Lowery called a special meeting to consider reappointing Mr. Pearson to represent the citizens in District 86, according to Action News 5.
Pearson’s return is thought to be a given, since he has enough supporters sitting in the commission, which has a Democratic supermajority.
Demonstrators are expected at the Tennessee Capitol on Monday to protest the expulsion of two Democratic state representatives as officials in Nashville are set to consider sending one of them back to the chamber.
The Tennessee House will be back in session Monday, with an Appropriations Subcommittee meeting, a Government Operations Committee meeting and a House floor session on the schedule.
We are on the basic rule which says we have to wait four weeks if two people object. Shulman said that if we don’t get a lot of objections, then we can suspend the rules. If we do that the council will vote to return Representative Jones to Tennessee State House.
State Sensitivities to Gun Violence: A State Senator’s Report on the Jones-Pearson-Jackiw Expulsion
As the state and local officials hold meetings Monday, protesters are planning a day of action that includes a rally before the Metro Council meeting then a march to the state Capitol.
The debate about the accessibility of guns in America has been going on for many years, and is being intensified after a mass shooting at a Nashville Christian school that left six people dead.
In the wake of that shooting, Jones, Pearson and Johnson took to the state House floor to advocate for gun control, using a bullhorn to address their colleagues and protesters.
Following the three representatives’ demonstrations last Thursday, Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton called their actions “unacceptable” and argued that they broke “several rules of decorum and procedure on the House floor.”
“The Republican-led supermajority of the Tennessee General Assembly sought to have a political lynching of three of its members because we spoke out of turn against the status quo of the government, after the tragic deaths of six people in the shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville,” he said.
“I believe the expulsion of State Representative Justin Pearson was conducted in a hasty manner without consideration of other corrective action methods,” Lowery said in a statement.
There will be a special election in the year 2020 to fill the seats after the general election in November of the same year.
State code requires awrit of election within 55 to 60 days for primaries by statewide political parties to fill vacancies. And a general election to fill the vacancy must be scheduled within 100 to 107 days.
According to Tennessee law, a state representative must be at least 21 years old, a US citizen, a resident of the state for at least three years and a resident of their county for one year preceding the election.
The Tennessee Electoral Commission: On the Importance of Prohibiting Anti-Proton Violence in the Era of the Tennessee Supermajority
While the state Constitution says members can be expelled for disorderly behavior with a two-thirds majority vote, they cannot be expelled “a second time for the same offense.”
Expelling lawmakers is quite rare in Tennessee, and last week’s vote from the state’s Republican supermajority has drawn reactions from scores of high profile officials.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden called the expulsions “shocking, undemocratic and without precedent” while criticizing Republicans for not taking greater action on gun reform.
Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Nashville on Friday to advocate for stricter gun control measures and highlight the importance of protecting Americans from gun violence. She also met with Pearson and Johnson privately.
When we took the oath to represent the people, we said that we would speak on their behalf. Harris said after the meeting that it wasn’t about the three leaders. “It was about who they were representing. It’s about whose voices they were channeling. Understand that – and is that not what a democracy allows?”
The Tennessee House of Representatives is the Voice: We Will Not Let The Movement Stop, Neither Do We Know,” Justin Jones said as he marched back to the Capitol
After being sworn back into the Tennessee House of Representatives Monday, a lawmaker who was expelled just days ago over a gun control demonstration on the chamber floor says he’ll continue to call for gun reform.
“The first thing I do when I walk into this building as a representative is to continue that call for common sense gun legislation,” Democrat Justin Jones said as he stood on the steps of the Capitol after his reinstatement Monday.
“Today we are sending a resounding message that democracy will not be killed in the comfort of silence,” Jones said to a cheering crowd Monday after marching back to the Capitol.
The bills will have to do with what the young people are begging us to do, according to Jones.
The Tennessee House Republicans released a statement on Monday, saying, “Tennessee’s constitution provides a pathway back from expulsion. Should any expelled member be reappointed, we will welcome them. They’re expected to follow the rules of the House, as well as state law.
“To anyone who has doubted the South, anyone who’s doubted the power of Tennesseans to advocate for an end to gun violence, anybody who’s doubted the movement to end assault weapons – anybody who’s doubted the movement, here’s your answer: The movement still lives,” said Pearson said as he stood on the steps of the Capitol alongside Jones Monday.
Pearson told Berman that Monday brought a celebration of Jones’ reinstatement but it was also another tragic day because of a mass shooting in Louisville, Kentucky less than a month after the school shooting in Tennessee.
“It’s also a painful moment of recognition that our legislators and people like (Speaker of the House) Cameron Sexton and the Republican party in Tennessee and across the South in this country are not doing nearly enough to prevent guns from getting in the hands of people and doing all of the holistic work of gun prevention that is necessary in places across our communities,” Pearson told CNN.
If the local governing bodies decide to send Jones and Pearson to the House, then the Speaker of the House will not prevent them from doing so.
“The two governing bodies will make the decision as to who they want to appoint to these seats,” a spokesperson for the speaker’s office told CNN Monday. “Those two individuals will be seated as representatives as the constitution requires.”
Attorneys for the ousted representatives – among them former US Attorney General Eric Holder – sent a letter to Sexton Monday, calling their removals “unconstitutional.”
Holder and attorney Scott J. Crosby – who are representing Jones and Pearson, respectively – urged the House to not “compound its errors by taking any further retributive actions.”
The letter states that any partisan retributive actions such as the discrimination against elected officials, or threats or actions to refuse funding for government programs, would be unconstitutional.
