Tennessee House Expulsions: What You Need to Know

In the wake of a school shooting in Nashville that left six people dead, three Democratic lawmakers took to the floor of the Republican-controlled Tennessee House chamber in late March to rally for stricter gun control.

In a dramatic act of political retribution, Republicans moved to expel the three Democrats from the legislature, and on April 6 two of them, Representatives Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, were ousted in votes that passed largely along party lines. The third lawmaker, Representative Gloria Johnson, narrowly avoided expulsion by one vote.

The extraordinary punitive action for an act of protest was just the third time since the Civil War era that the Tennessee House had expelled a lawmaker from its ranks. It sparked outrage among Democrats, including President Biden, who called the Republicans’ moves “shocking” and “undemocratic.”

With two House seats left vacant, the authority to name temporary replacements fell to the local governing bodies in the districts that had been represented by Mr. Jones and Mr. Pearson.

Only four days after the expulsions, the Metropolitan Nashville Council unanimously voted to appoint Mr. Jones back to the seat in a pointed rebuke to the G.O.P., and he was sworn in the same day. On Wednesday, the Shelby County Commission unanimously voted to send Mr. Pearson back, too.

Here’s what you need to know.

What happened in the initial protest?

Hundreds of students, parents and teachers have marched to the State Capitol since the Covenant School shooting on March 27 and have held demonstrations at the Capitol to demand action by the legislature to toughen gun laws.

The Republicans who control state government, led by Gov. Bill Lee, have largely rejected the calls for tighter gun laws and have focused instead on toughening school security. Mr. Lee has signaled his openness to measures that would allow the authorities to confiscate guns from those who are deemed by a judge to be at risk of harming themselves or others.

On March 30, Representatives Jones, Pearson and Johnson — whose districts are in Nashville, Knoxville and Memphis, the state’s three largest cities — interrupted the legislature by chanting “No action, no peace” on the House floor. Mr. Jones and Mr. Pearson, two of the youngest Black lawmakers in the chamber, had also used a bullhorn to engage with supporters in the galleries, and legislative proceedings were forced to a halt.

How did Republicans react?

The speaker of the House, Cameron Sexton, responded by comparing the three lawmakers to the rioters who breached the U.S. Capitol in 2021. He called their actions “unacceptable” and a violation of House rules of decorum and procedure. By April 3, he had revoked their ID access to the State Capitol building and had stripped two of the three lawmakers of their committee assignments.

Republicans then filed individual resolutions to formally expel each of the three Democrats. In each resolution, Republicans charged that the lawmaker “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor” to the House and “generally engaged in disorderly and disruptive conduct.” The measures did not cite any other consequence of the protests.

What happened when the House voted on the expulsion measures?

On April 6, the House held separate votes on the three resolutions. Protesters again flooded the Capitol, and their chants of “Gun control now” and “Not one more” were deafening outside the House chamber.

After hours of deeply personal, angry and at times condescending debate, the votes to expel Mr. Jones and Mr. Pearson passed largely along party lines, with the Republican supermajority voting overwhelmingly for expulsion.

Ms. Johnson survived: The chamber voted 65 to 30 to remove her, falling one vote short.

After the final vote, the crowds in the galleries burst into angry yells and cries of “Shame on you” with fists held high.

Seven Republicans had joined Democrats in voting against the expulsion of Ms. Johnson. Asked why she thought she had survived the expulsion vote, Ms. Johnson, who is white, said, “It might have to do with the color of my skin.”

Mr. Pearson, crowded by supporters after he was ejected and yelling over the sound of demonstrators, said: “You cannot ignore the racial dynamic of what happened today — two young Black lawmakers get expelled and the one white woman does not.”

Republican leaders, speaking to reporters afterward, denied that race played a factor in the decision and pointedly noted that the majority of their conference was still in favor of expelling Ms. Johnson.

Who are the three lawmakers?

Ms. Johnson, who represents parts of Knoxville, is the most senior of the three; she was first elected to the House for the 2013-2014 term. A former teacher, she was elected again in 2018. After redistricting following the 2020 census, she moved to avoid having to contest the seat of another Democratic member.

Mr. Jones, 27, is one of the youngest members of the House. He won election in November to represent parts of Nashville. A graduate of Fisk University in Nashville, he made a name for himself locally as a community organizer. He has held sit-ins in the State Capitol and, in the summer of 2020, led a 61-day protest against racial injustice outside the building that included demands for the removal of a bust of a Confederate general.

Mr. Pearson, 28, won a special election by a landslide in January to represent parts of Memphis. A native of the city and graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine, he is the son of an educator and a preacher. Mr. Pearson gained prominence when he successfully opposed a crude oil pipeline proposed for South Memphis.

In interviews, all three lawmakers spoke of how gun violence — and in some instances, their personal experiences of it — had helped shape their paths to politics. Mr. Pearson recounted the pain of losing family members and a mentor to gun violence, and said the push for tighter restrictions on firearms “is personal when you lose your friends, when you lose loved ones.”

Mr. Jones recalled attending his first protests after Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Black teenager, was shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida. “This issue is something that has been a part of our generation,” he said. “This is a very personal issue.”

Ms. Johnson recalled a shooting at Central High School in Knoxville that took place while she was still working as a teacher, and “the terror on the kids’ faces as they were running down that hill into my classroom.”

How does the process to fill the vacated seats work?

Ultimately, special elections will be held to fill the seats of the expelled lawmakers. Mr. Jones and Mr. Pearson are able to run again in the elections, and both have said they will.

For the period before the special elections, the local governing bodies in each district have the power to appoint temporary representatives.

On Monday, four days after the expulsions, the Metropolitan Council, which oversees Nashville and the surrounding county, voted unanimously to send Mr. Jones back to his seat. He was quickly sworn in on the steps of the State Capitol, without ever missing a full floor session.

Two days later, the Shelby County Commission unanimously voted to appoint Mr. Pearson back. He could return to his seat as early as Thursday.

Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.