What happens next to the expelled Tennessee House Democrats?

The Republican-controlled Tennessee House of Representatives expelled two Democratic lawmakers Thursday for disrupting deliberations in the chamber last week while leading a gun control protest — an unprecedented move that nevertheless will not bar them from returning to office.

State Reps. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) were removed for halting House proceedings with a demonstration calling for stricter gun laws in the wake of the Covenant School shooting that took the lives of three adults and three 9-year-old children on March 27.

The House voted 72-25 to oust Jones, 27, and 69-26 to oust Pearson, 28, for their “disorderly behavior” on March 30 that forced the chamber into recess — but members spared Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) by a 65-30 vote, just short of the two-thirds majority needed to remove her.

Why were the representatives expelled?

Hundreds of students, parents and teachers joined the Democratic representatives last Thursday as they marched into the state Capitol to demand more firearm restrictions.

Johnson, Jones and Pearson moved onto the House floor and took over the well during the demonstration, with Jones leading protesters crowded into the upper gallery in chants that stopped legislative activity.

“No action, no peace,” Jones shouted through a bullhorn as he held up a sign that read “Protect kids, not guns.”

“There comes a time when you have to do something out of the ordinary,” Jones tweeted later about the incident. “We occupied the House floor today after repeatedly being silenced from talking about the crisis of mass shootings.”

In resolutions drafted against each Monday, Republican Reps. Bud Hulsey (Kingsport), Gino Bulso (Brentwood) and Andrew Farmer (Sevierville) said the Democrats “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions” and that they had improperly displayed political messages in the chamber.

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton said Wednesday the expulsions had “nothing to do about the protest outside the House chamber or the protests outside the Capitol” and concerned only the members’ behavior on the House floor.”

“This is about these three members’ actions on the House floor, how they shut us down, and how they led protests from the House chamber to those in the balcony,” Sexton told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer.

In an interview with CNN after the vote, Tennessee Republican Caucus Chair Rep. Jeremy Faison (Cosby) also said the expelled reps had a “history” of disruptions in committee meetings as well as on the House floor.

“It’s not possible for us to move forward with the way they were behaving,” he said. “There’s got to be some peace.”

The so-called “Tennessee three” had admitted before the vote to violating House decorum and were stripped of committee assignments and lost ID access to the state Capitol. Johnson did not respond to The Post’s inquiry as to whether the House had plans to renew her committee assignments or ID access following her narrow survival.

Jones, in remarks before the House on Thursday, called the expulsion vote a “power grab” and “a farce of democracy.”

President Biden also called the expulsions “shocking, undemocratic and without precedent,” along with Tennessee Democratic representatives who said it overruled the will of tens of thousands voters who elected Pearson and Jones.

Republicans countered that halting House business was far more undemocratic, with Rep. Johnny Garrett (Goodlettsville) saying on the floor Thursday, “What happened one week ago is that the members that shut the order of this institution down silenced seven million people.”

Who will replace the lawmakers and will they be able to run for office again?

Under the state’s constitution, the Tennessee House or Senate may expel any member of their chamber by a two-thirds vote. But only three House lawmakers have been expelled in the legislature’s history, according to the state attorney general’s office.

The most recent expulsions in 2016 and 1980 were for charges of sexual misconduct and bribery, respectively, while a third in 1866 was “for the contempt of the authority of this House,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

Pearson, who won his seat after a special election in March, will be replaced by an interim representative chosen by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners, which contains a nine-member Democratic supermajority.

Chairman Mickell Lowery said Thursday before the expulsion vote that he was seeking legal guidance on whether Pearson could be reappointed immediately until a special election could be held.

Neither Lowery’s office nor other 12 members of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners responded to The Post’s request for comment.

Pearson won a crowded special Democratic primary election in January after his predecessor, Barbara Cooper, was elected posthumously in November.

More than half of Nashville’s Metro Council said Friday they will reappoint Jones for his seat, putting him right back in the House.

Vice Mayor Jim Shulman has already scheduled a special meeting for the council to hold a reappointment vote on Monday for Jones, who first took office in January.

A permanent representative for will later be chosen by voters via special election — in which Pearson and Jones may also run.