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(Trends Wide) — After swearing his return to the Tennessee House of Representatives on Monday, a lawmaker who was ousted a few days ago for a gun control rally on the House floor says he will continue to call for gun reform.
“The first thing I will do as I walk into this building as a representative is continue that call for common sense gun legislation,” Democrat Justin Jones said as he stood on the Capitol steps after his reinstatement this week. Monday.
Jones and another black Democrat, Justin Pearson, were ousted from the Republican-controlled legislature last week, following a House floor protest sparked by the mass shooting last month at a Nashville Christian school that left six dead. .
A third Democrat who had joined them in the protest, Rep. Gloria Johnson, was not ousted.
The Nashville Metropolitan Council voted 36-0 on Monday to reappoint Jones to the House of Representatives, making him once again the representative of the local House District 52, but this time on an interim basis. State law allows local legislatures to appoint interim members of the House to fill the seats of ousted legislators until an election is held.
“Today we are sending a strong message that democracy will not be killed in the comfort of silence,” Jones told a cheering crowd Monday after marching back to the Capitol.
Now technically a new member, Jones said he can introduce 15 bills and will be working on gun reform legislation immediately when he returns Tuesday.
“Every one of those bills is going to have to do with it, because that’s what these young people are begging us to do,” Jones told Trends Wide Monday night.
Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives issued a statement Monday, saying: “Tennessee’s constitution provides a way to avoid removal. In case any expelled member is re-elected, we will welcome him. Like everyone else, they are expected to follow House rules and state laws.”
Meanwhile, Pearson’s still-vacant seat in the 86th District will be addressed this Wednesday during a meeting of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners in Memphis, announced Commission Chairman Mickell Lowery, who said Pearson’s ouster “ carried out in a hasty manner without considering other corrective measures.”
“To anyone who has doubted the South, anyone who has doubted the power of Tennesseans to advocate for an end to gun violence, anyone who has doubted the movement to end assault weapons, anyone who has doubted the movement , this is his answer: the movement still lives,” Pearson said as he stood on the steps of the Capitol next to Jones on Monday.
Pearson told Trends Wide’s John Berman that while Monday celebrated Jones’ reinstatement, it was also another tragic day marked by a mass shooting in Louisville, Kentucky, less than a month after the school shooting in Tennessee that sparked the legislators protest.
The shooting in Louisville points to a “sobering reality that we find ourselves in that we’re not doing enough to prevent gun violence,” Pearson added.
“It is also a painful moment of recognition that our legislators and people like (House Speaker) Cameron Sexton and the Republican Party in Tennessee and across the South are not doing enough to stop guns from reaching people’s hands and doing all the holistic gun prevention work that’s needed in places in our communities,” Pearson told Trends Wide.
State Representative Justin Jones delivers a speech in front of the state capitol in Nashville on April 10, 2023 after being reinstated in the House. (Credit: George Walker IV/AP)
What comes next?
With the next November 2024 general election more than 12 months away, a special election will be held to fill the seats, in accordance with the Tennessee Constitution.
No date has been set for a special election, but state law says the governor must schedule them within 55 to 60 days.
It appears that both Jones and Pearson qualify to run again for their seats in the special election. Meanwhile, “the legislature of the county of residence of the replaced legislator at the time of his election may choose an interim successor,” the state Constitution says.
Sexton, the House speaker, indicated Monday that he would not stand in the way of the appointments if local governing bodies decide to send Jones and Pearson back to the House.
“The two governing bodies will make the decision on who they want to appoint to these positions,” a spokesman for the House leader’s office told Trends Wide on Monday. “Those two people will sit as representatives as required by the constitution.”
On Monday, Jones called for Sexton’s resignation.
“He is an enemy of democracy, and he no longer deserves to be in that position of Speaker of the House,” Jones told Trends Wide.
Trends Wide has reached out to Sexton for comment.
In ousting Jones and Pearson last week, Republicans held a party-line vote to oust them, accusing them of “knowingly and intentionally” bringing “disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives” without being recognized to speak, affiliate WSMV reported. from Trends Wide. .
Although the state Constitution says that members can be expelled for disorderly conduct with a two-thirds majority vote, they cannot be expelled “a second time for the same offense.”
Expulsions were ‘unconstitutional’, lawyers say
Lawyers for the expelled representatives, including US Attorney General Eric Holder, sent a letter to Sexton on Monday, calling their dismissals “unconstitutional.”
“His partisan ouster was extraordinary, illegal, and without historical or legal precedent,” the attorneys said.
Holder and attorney Scott J. Crosby, representing Jones and Pearson, respectively, urged the House not to “compound its mistakes by taking further retribution measures.”
“Any partisan retributive action, such as discriminatory treatment of elected officials, or threats or actions to withhold funds for government programs, would constitute further unconstitutional action requiring redress,” the letter says.
The Congressional Black Caucus issued a statement Monday after Jones was reinstated to his seat.
“While this is what Nashvilleans deserve, we must recognize that Representative Jones was reelected to office not because the Republican majority did the right thing, but because the voters of Representative Jones in Nashville, along with supporters everywhere on our country, peacefully expressed their concerns about the prevalence of gun violence in our communities and the continued assault by Republicans on our democracy,” the statement read.
— Aya Elamroussi, Shawn Nottingham, Theresa Waldrop, Amy Simonson, Ritu Prasad, Kelly McCleary, Devon Sayers, Sara Smart, Tina Burnside, Isabel Rosales, Kevin Conlon, Mitchell McCluskey y Amy Simonson de Trends Wide contribuyeron a este informe.
