NASHVILLE, Tenn. — According to reports from NBC, U.S. Senators sent a letter to the Department of Justice on Wednesday asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the Tennessee legislature's decision to expel two lawmakers.
Rep. Gloria Johnson (D - Knoxville), Rep. Justin Jones (D - Nashville) and Rep. Justin Pearson (D - Shelby County) all faced expulsion votes in the state's House of Representatives. Johnson, a white woman, kept her seat. Jones and Pearson, both Black men, lost their seats.
Resolutions to expel them were filed after all three approached the "well" in the House of Representatives while demonstrators called for lawmakers to take action and pass gun restrictions, following a Nashville school shooting that killed three children and three adults. Johnson stood with Jones and Pearson as they called for gun reform.
Johnson said they had brought a megaphone with them because they expected the state's Republican supermajority to shut off their microphones while they spoke, which had happened several times before during sessions.
"The Tennessee state legislature has reportedly never previously expelled a member over purely procedural violations. Instead, previous expulsions have involved serious allegations of ethical or criminal misconduct," the letter says, "In taking this radical action, rather than responding to the intolerable violence inflicted upon a Tennessee community, the Tennessee House of Representatives chose to silence Black members of their own body who were protesting nonviolently, in response to violence."
The letter also says that the role of the federal government is to "protect democratic institutions and to preserve the ability of legislators to debate on issues of public importance."
"Although we are heartened to see the Nashville Metropolitan Council unanimously vote on Monday, April 10, 2023 to reappoint Representative Jones as the district’s interim representative and send him back to the Tennessee legislature, some emboldened Tennessee officials have reportedly threatened to withhold funding from Memphis if it honors the will of voters and sends Representative Pearson back to the legislature, a clear attempt to further disenfranchise voters and a blatant affront to our constitutional values," the letter says.
Both Pearson and Jones were soon reappointed to their seats as interim representatives, while their districts organize a special election to formally choose someone to fill the seat. Voters could choose to give them their seats back in those elections.
"People of all goodwill in Tennessee and across America and are deeply disturbed by these counter-democratic expulsions because they overturn and subvert the will of Tennessee voters in Nashville and Memphis. Many in the Tennessee legislature appear to have convinced themselves that The People’s House is their house," the letter says. "The U.S. Department of Justice should investigate whether it was also unlawful or unconstitutional."
The letter lists three specific actions by the Tennessee legislature that Senators urge the DOJ to investigate. Those actions are listed below.
- Any rights of tens of thousands of Tennessee citizens in Memphis and Nashville to be represented by the legislators of their choice, whether under Article IV, Section 4 (guaranteeing to the states a Republican form of government) or other authorities;
- Any rights of Representatives Jones and Pearson under the Fourteenth Amendment or its enforcing civil rights statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race
- Any rights of Representatives Jones and Pearson under the First Amendment protecting the right of speech and assembly.
"We are deeply concerned that without immediate action by the U.S. Department of Justice, antidemocratic actors will only be emboldened, and we will see more troubling and more frequent incidents meant to unravel our democratic fabric," the letter says.
It also says the DOJ should respond by Friday, April 28.
It was signed by Sen. Raphael Warnock (D - Georgia), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D - New York), Sen. Christopher Murphy (D - Connecticut), Sen. Alex Padilla (D - California) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D - Hawaii).