The Nashville Metropolitan Council Appoints Rep. Michael Jones to the House of Representatives: “This is a Travesty of Democracy”
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. State law allows local legislative bodies to appoint interim House members to fill the seats of expelled lawmakers until an election is held.
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.” We fight for our district because we are outspoken.
More than one hundred thousand voters in Black districts 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.”
Repealing Justin Jones at a special meeting of the Nashville Metropolitan Council: What do we need to know about Nashville if we are going to vote on it?
Nashville Vice Mayor Jim Shulman has called for a special Metropolitan Council meeting on Monday to discuss filling the empty District 52 House seat left by Jones, according to an email tweeted out by councilmember Bob Mendes.
The majority of Nashville’s 40-member council have already vowed to reappoint Jones, according to NBC News — with some signaling their intention to do so before the council meeting was even called.
A special election will be held after the council appoints an interim House representative nominee.
Pearson’s vacant District 86 seat will be addressed during a special meeting of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners in Memphis on Wednesday afternoon, Commission Chairman Mickell Lowery said.
The commission with a Democratic supermajority seems to have enough supporters for him to be reappointed, according to Commissioner Erika Sugarmon.
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 meet on 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. My guess is that the council will vote to send Rep. Justin Jones back to Tennessee if we do that.
The Jones–Pearson–Juneson standoff and the shooting of The Covenant School as a demonstration against gun laws in Tennessee
Protesters are planning a march and rally to the state Capitol on Monday, as the state and local officials hold meetings.
This latest standoff is related to the mass shooting last month at a Nashville Christian school that left six people dead and three 9-year-old children and is part of a long-standing debate over access to guns in America.
Jones, Pearson and Johnson used a bullhorn to speak to their colleagues and protesters in the state House after the shooting.
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.”
He said that the Tennessee General Assembly was planning on lynching three of them because they spoke out against the government after the tragedy 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.
A special election will be held to fill the seats because there is more than a year until the next general election.
A “writ of election” for “primary elections for nominations by statewide political parties to fill the vacancy” must be scheduled within 55 to 60 days, state code says. There must be a general election within 100 to 97 days to fill the vacancies.
In order to be elected to serve as a state representative in Tennessee, you must be at least 21 years old, aUS citizen, a resident of the state for at least 3 years and a county voter.
Tennessee Democrat Kamala Harris and the Republican Supermajority: What Happens When You Are Not Invited Out Of The House?
Members cannot be kicked out of the state for disorderly behavior if there is two-thirds majority vote, according to the state constitution.
In Tennessee, expulsion of lawmakers is rare, and last week’s vote from the state’s Republican supermajority has drawn a lot of reaction from high profile officials.
President Joe Biden called the expulsions “shocking, undemocratic and without precedent” while bashing Republicans for not acting 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 had private meetings with Jones, Pearson and Johnson.
They understand that when we take an oath to represent the people who elected us, that is when we speak for them. It wasn’t about the three of these leaders,” Harris said in remarks after the meeting. They had to represent who they were representing. It is about their voices. Understand that and see if that is okay with a democracy.
Jones and Pearson, the Movement for Common-Sense Gun Control, and the Tennessee House of Representatives, met with CNN on the steps of 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.
As he stood on the steps of the capitol after his reinstatement, Jones said he would continue to push for common sense gun legislation.
“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.
Jones told CNN Monday evening that all of the bills would have to do with that.
The Tennessee House Republicans said that the constitution gives them a path back from expulsion. Should any expelled member be reappointed, we will welcome them. Like everyone else, they are 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 was also marked by a mass shooting in Louisville, Kentucky, less than a month after the school shooting in Tennessee that caused lawmakers to protest.
It is a sad moment of recognition that our 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.
The Speaker of the House said Monday that he wouldn’t stand in the way of the appointments if local bodies decide to take Jones and Pearson back to the chamber.
“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. The constitution requires that those two individuals be seated.
Attorneys for the ousted representatives sent a letter to Sexton calling their removal 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.”
“Any partisan retributive action, such as the discriminatory treatment of elected officials, or threats or actions to withhold funding for government programs, would constitute further unconstitutional action that would require redress,” the letter says.