Tennessee Democrat lawmakers expulsion: all the times it has happened before

The Tennessee State House held an unprecedented vote to expel a group of Democrat lawmakers known as The Tennessee Three. The trio interrupted a debate by joining a protest for gun control in the state capitol.

After a shooting in a Nashville school killed three nine-year-old kids and three adults, Democtar lawmakers called for stricter gun-control laws, said The Associated Press. Advocates started protesting the actions taken by the Republican lawmakers this year: reinforcing school security and allowing more guns in schools and universities.

The protests were packed with students, teachers, and parents and lasted for days. According to The New York Times podcast, The Daily, the demonstrations were held outside the State Legislature and inside the galleries of the capitol chamber.

The account from The Daily explains that three democratic lawmakers tried to pivot the debate by acknowledging protesters and asking to debate gun control before each intervention. They finally walked to the front with signs and a megaphone, leading the demonstrators with chantings.

After the interruption, GOP lawmakers, who hold a supermajority in the State House, were very upset and decided to take action: they chose to have an unprecedented vote on whether the Tennessee Three should be expelled from their seats, as they publicly announced to the press.

The GOP majority expelled two of the three lawmakers that joined the protest: Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. They spared the last one, Gloria Jhonson, arguing she did not participate directly in the demonstration.

Jones and Pearson were the youngest black members of the House. They got elected after becoming known as activists and advocates for racial justice and social issues. According to The New York Times, gun violence was one of those topics.

Gloria Jhonson is a long-serving member of the State House and a strong advocate for gun control. After the voting, she told the media that she believed the positive results for her "had to do with the color of her skin." She was the only white lawmaker facing expulsion.

The Tennessee State House has only held a vote like that three times since the civil war, according to a 2019 report by the state attorney general's office. None of them have had to do with protests but with convictions of corruption or sexual misconduct.

The state attorney general's office document explains that the first expulsion was in 1866 and was only justified "for the contempt of the authority of this House." Six members were expelled.

The second was in 1980, against Republican former Representative Robert Fisher, for accepting a bribe while he was in office. The House said Fisher's actions were "inconsistent with the public trust and duty of a member of this Body" to argue for expulsion, as the 2019 document explains.

The third one, also collected in the document, was in 2016. Jeremy Durham, also a Republican, was expelled for "disorderly conduct" after allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct with several women throughout his time in office went public.

The attorney general's office report was issued in 2019 at the request of the House speaker after Gloria Johnson asked to vote on the expulsion of Republican David Byrd after three women accused them of sexually assaulting them while they were minors and he was his basketball coach. The voting was ruled out.

That experience led to accusations of a double standard against the Republican majority of the House from protesters and collected by The Associated Press and other media. Byrd's case is not isolated. GOP lawmakers have scaped expulsion for sexual misconduct, racist commentaries, and online violence, listed The Washington Post.

However, the expulsion also served as a perfect national platform for Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, who are already receiving donations from all over the country and have become a face for gun control advocates, as the Tennessee correspondent for The New York Times explained in The Daily.

The expulsion could also result in nothing. Justin Jones has already recovered his seat as interim representative until elections are held to replace him. Nashville’s metro council voted on it on Monday. According to local media, it is likely that Pearson will similarly recover his place on Wednesday.

Jones and Pearson have confirmed their intent to participate during those elections, as they told NBC’s Meet the Press. They will likely win again after raising their profile through the protest and expulsion and receiving nationwide campaign donations.