Tennessee Expulsions

Tennesee House votes to expel 2 of 3 Democratic members over gun protest.

The political fallout from March 27th’s horrific Nashville shooting continues to roil the nation. The latest story has the Tennessee House of Representatives expelling two black members for protesting gun violence. The expulsion is being portrayed by some as Republicans callously ignoring gun deaths and targeting two black men in a blatant show of racism. Reality is a bit more nuanced.

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What happened?

On March 30, three days after the Nashville shooting—where three adults and three children were brutally murdered—an angry crowd marched on the state capitol. While loud protestors gathered outside the Tennessee House chamber, inside, three Democratic members broke House rules to stand at a podium and cry out for gun control (“No action, no peace!”) using a small megaphone. Their mini-protest lasted about five minutes.

There comes a time when you have to do something out of the ordinary. We occupied the House floor today after repeatedly being silenced from talking about the crisis of mass shootings. We could not go about business as usual as thousands were protesting outside demanding action.
— Represenative Justin Jones (March 30 tweet)

Angry Republicans called for a resolution to expel the three Democrats because they “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions.” The members themselves admitted that they weren’t following House rules when they walked onto the floor and spoke without being recognized by the chair.

The Republican Party dominates the Tennessee House, with 75 Republicans and 23 Democrats. Expelling a member requires the support of two-thirds of the chamber or 66 votes. Representative Justin Jones was voted out 72 to 25, and Representative Justin Pearson expelled with a 69 to 26 vote.¹ The motion to expel Representative Gloria Johnson failed to pass by one vote, 65 to 30.

When Johnson was asked why she wasn’t expelled, she replied:

Well, I think it's pretty clear. I'm a 60-year-old white woman and they are two young black men.

It certainly looks kinda racist when two black men are expelled when the white woman isn’t, but Johnson, unlike the other two, had apologized for her actions, and she had not used a megaphone during the protest. Even so, almost all the Republican members still voted to expel her. Remember, the motion to expel her only failed by one vote. If one less Republican had switched their vote, would that have been a victory for racial equality? It’s an odd stretch to call that racism.

There were also accusations of racism going in the other direction. Republican Representative Sabi “Doc” Kumar² complained that Rep. Jones had used a slur against him.

In those 53 years in America, I have never encountered a racial slur…Yet, you, on tape, called me a brown face.

Jones replied that what he had said was:

You exhibited, as the only member of their caucus not of the caucasian persuasion, I said that you put a brown face on white supremacy.

Whether you think that counts as racism probably depends on your politics. For liberals, accusing non-white people of “fronting” or “caping” for white supremacy is common and is not seen as racist. I deplore such labels but still wouldn’t call Jones’ words racist (but I can see why Rep. Kumar would think otherwise).

Rep. Jones, in his speech defending his actions, asked why other House members who had done more serious transgressions had not been expelled.

Let’s talk about expulsion. For years one of your colleagues who was an admitted child molester sat in this chamber. No expulsion…We had a member pee on another member’s chair in this chamber. No expulsion…When you’re trying to put us on trial, what you’re really putting on trial is the state of Tennessee…The state in which the Ku Klux Klan was founded is now attempting another power grab by silencing the two youngest black representatives and one of the only women, only Democratic women in this body. That’s what this is about.

Jones’ words were passionate but glossed over some details. The child molestation accusation had not resulted in a conviction, although the representative, a former high school basketball coach, had been recorded apologizing to one of his teenage victims. The peeing incident, which is connected to a convoluted scandal involving an anonymous Twitter account, remains unconfirmed.³ And while Republicans may be racist, the old KKK would not have welcomed an Indian-American member.

And what should the Tennessee House have done? Legislatures have rules of decorum to prevent proceedings from being disrupted. If any member can grab a megaphone to shout at will, calm debate becomes impossible. Many liberals are cheering the three Democrats, but would they feel the same if it was three Republicans who had grabbed a megaphone in a Democratic-controlled chamber and called for more restrictions on abortion or same-sex marriage? The mind boggles.

No elected official should lose their job simply for raising their voice – especially when they’re doing it on behalf of our children.
Barack Obama (April 6 tweet)

Obama’s words lay out the source of much of the disagreement. For many Democrats, the lawmakers’ rule-breaking was justified because their cause was good. Except many Tennessee voters disagree and don’t want stricter gun laws. (In a 2018 poll, 46% of Tennesseans supported stricter gun laws, while 39% wanted them kept as they were. 11% thought they should be even less strict.)

Some of this is also a clash of styles. Rep. Jones made his career as a community activist. He was involved in protests against a statue of KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest and against police violence after the murder of George Floyd. After he was elected in 2022, he tweeted:

My name is Justin Jones. I’m a 26 year-old community organizer, been arrested over 14 times for good trouble, and I look forward to serving as the next state representative of District 52 (the most diverse district in TN).

I’m all for “good trouble” (a label made famous by Civil Rights hero John Lewis), but rowdy activism is probably not appropriate on the floor of the Tennessee House.

That said, the expulsion was an over-the-top reaction. Only two other members have been expelled from the Tennessee House in the last 100 years: Robert Fisher for seeking a bribe (1980) and Jeremy Durham for allegations of sexual misconduct (2016). In both cases, the votes to expel were bipartisan. By removing Jones and Pearson, Republicans have taken representation away from 150,000 citizens of two Tennessee districts. Rep. Pearson said, “We are losing our democracy. This is not normal. This is not OK.”

Taking away the member’s committee assignments (as was done), and issuing a reprimand and a warning, seems like it would have been sufficient. The gun control debate is heated, and both sides need to talk to each other. This isn’t possible if voices are silenced. Republicans probably weren’t motivated by racism, but their actions did nothing to advance debate.

What will happen next? The state must now hold new elections for the vacated seats. Both men can run again and be reelected to the Tennessee House.⁴ According to House rules, you can’t be expelled twice for the same offense. I’m sure the day they return to the chamber will be low-key.

1. Because the two men were both named “Justin,” a new slogan has been trending: “No Justins, No Peace!”

2. Inventor of the “Kumar Clamp,” used in gallbladder surgeries. I am without a gallbladder but Doctor Kumar’s clamp was invented after my gallbladder was removed.

3. “A chair in Tillis' legislative office was urinated on, according to one lawmaker familiar with the matter.” One wonders how familiar. Things seem different in Tennessee.

4. The Nashville Metro Council may also appoint Mr. Jones to serve as an interim representative until the special election takes place. Some members of the Council have already promised to do so.