Local officials are poised to send the Tennessee lawmakers back to state capitol

Comments on a Black-Leading Demonstration on the Nashville School Shooting: Jones’s Return to the Tennessee House

Shortly after the council vote, Jones returned to the Tennessee capitol to be sworn back into office amid a sea of media and supporters. He walked back to the House chamber with the lawmaker who dodged expulsion last week.

The two Democrats who were ejected after staging a protest on the House floor for gun reform want their seats back.

Jones and Pearson, both of whom are Black, were voted out of the Tennessee House on Thursday for their actions that took place in response to the deadly school shooting in Nashville.

130,000 Black voters are without representation in the House. Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, who is white and also led the protest, survived expulsion by one vote.

“This attack against us is hurting all people in our state,” he added. “Even though it is disproportionately impacting Black and brown communities, this is hurting poor white people … silencing them.”

An email sent out by Councilmember Bob Mendes stated that Nashville Vice Mayor Jim Shulman has called for a special Metropolitan Council meeting to discuss the District 52 House seat left by Jones.

Ahead of the meeting, at least 30 councilmembers released statements declaring their intent to vote Jones back into the District 52 seat. He needed a simple majority of the 40-member council to reclaim the seat.

Jones is eligible to run in the special election that the county will hold after the council appoints an interim representative.

Mickell Lowery, chairman of the commission, said a special meeting of the county board will be called in Memphis to address the District 86 seat.

Chances appear to favor Pearson’s return: Commissioner Erika Sugarmon told the Memphis Commercial Appeal that the former lawmaker has enough supporters sitting in the commission, which has a Democratic supermajority, to get him successfully reappointed.

The Tennessee House is Back in Session: Bounds on a Democratic State Representative’s Expulsion from the Nashville School Shooting

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.

“If two people object, we are back on the basic rule … which says we have to wait four weeks. But, if we don’t get that many objections, then we can suspend the rules … and we can vote tonight,” said Shulman. If we vote to do that the council will vote to send Jones back to Tennessee.

Protesters are planning a day of action Monday, including a rally before the Metro Council meeting and a march to the state Capitol.

The expulsions and expected protest are part of the long-standing debate over the accessibility of guns in America, with this latest standoff spurred by the mass shooting last month at a Nashville Christian school that left six people dead, including three 9-year-old children.

Jones said he and the other lawmakers couldn’t speak about gun violence on the House floor because their microphones weren’t working.

Republicans accused the trio of “knowingly and intentionally” bringing “disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives” without being recognized to speak, CNN affiliate WSMV reported. Republicans held a vote to oust Jones and Pearson.

He said that the Republican-led General Assembly wanted to have political lynchings of three of their members because they spoke out against the current Government after six people were killed at The Covenant School.

“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.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/10/us/tennessee-democrat-house-representatives-expelled-monday/index.html

Tennessee Senate Appropriately Forbids Anti-Devils from Gun Violence, and Vice President Kamala Harris Meets Jones, Pearson and Johnson

According to the Tennessee Constitution, since the next general election is more than 12 months away, in November 2024, a special election will be held to fill the seats.

Awrit of election must be held within 60 days of the date of the vacancy, according to the state code. The general election to fill the vacancy needs to be held within 100 to 107 days.

Tennessee law requires a state representative to be 21 years of age, a US citizen, a resident of the state for at least three years, and a county resident for one year prior to the election.

And 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.

The expulsions were decried by President Biden as shocking and undemocratic, while he criticized the 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 privately met with Jones, Pearson and Johnson.

When we take an oath to represent those who elected us, we speak on their behalf. It wasn’t about the three of these leaders,” Harris said in remarks after the meeting. They were representing who they were. It’s about whose voices they were channeling. Understand that – and is that not what a democracy allows?”

The Action of Black Leaders on the Rule Change: The Expulsion of Two Black Legislators Against a Minority Whistler

“I know that community members called and emailed us, and I think they did a great job because we didn’t have a single objection to suspension of the rules today,” said Council Member Sandra Sepulveda.

Since the expulsions of the two young Black lawmakers, Black leaders have called the move racist and hypocritical. Johnson is the one of the three who is white.