According to a flyer being circulated, Monday will be a “Day of Action” for Tennessee Democrats after two former legislators were expelled from office Thursday.
“Join the Tennessee three for a day of action,” the flyer says.
A graphic (pictured above) shows former State Reps. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) joined hands with Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) with linked hands raised in the air.
Johnson was spared expulsion by one vote, despite a majority of the Tennessee House voting in favor of the action. A supermajority is necessary to expel a lawmaker from the Tennessee House.
At 3:30pm there will be a rally at Metro Plaza in Nashville, according to the flyer. That will be followed by an appearance at Monday’s Metro Council Meeting, when the governing body will consider who will serve in Jones’ place until a special election is held. At 5:00pm, the now-famous trio will lead their supporters in a March to the Tennessee Capitol.
As reported earlier Sunday by The Tennessee Star, the Tennessee House of Representatives is governed by its own rules, Tennessee statutes, and the Tennessee State Constitution when determining seating a new member.
The Star reported:
Tennessee House Speaker Cam Sexton has previously stated that if the Nashville/Davidson Metro Council chooses to offer an interim successor to fulfill the remaining term of former State Rep. Jones until a special general election is held, the House will address that issue when it is presented.
Should the Metro Council vote on Monday to name former State Rep. Jones as “interim successor” to the seat from which he was expelled, House Republicans are likely to object to his reinstatement on Constitutional, statutory, and House rules grounds.
The constitutional grounds are that an expelled member of the House cannot be his own “successor,” and that, by legal definition, a successor must be another person.
Jones himself reportedly offered statutory grounds to object to his reinstatement. According to reports, prior to his expulsion Jones told State Rep. Brian Richey (R-Blount County) he wasn’t worried about being expelled because he was confident he would be appointed as his own interim successor by Metro Council. In the event this confidence arose from private conversations Jones had with Metro Council members, such a conversation would likely constitute a violation of the state’s Sunshine laws.
Rev. Stephen A. Green, who describes himself as a pastor and an activist, shared the flyer on his Twitter account.
Nashville — Join the #TenneseeThree for a Day of Action
Rally at 3:30pm at Metro Plaza pic.twitter.com/hGLDzGmImc
— Rev. Stephen A. Green (@GreenTheRev) April 9, 2023
Johnson shared the post on her page.
The expulsion of the lawmakers came on the heels of an anti-gun riot at the Tennessee Capitol on March 30, just three days after a mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.
That shooting was carried out by 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as transgender and was a former student at the school.
After a physical altercation, State Troopers managed to keep the rioters, who were led by Jones, Pearson and Johnson, from pushing their way into the House chamber from the House gallery. Lawmakers’ offices are located in the chamber.
No criminal charges have been filed.
The expulsions have led to a furious national reaction from Democrats.
Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance in Nashville, meeting with the expelled lawmakers and Johnson and giving a speech at Fisk University.
Her speech was in part a solidarity rally for the unruly lawmakers.
“Your voices are part of the conscience of our country. When we need in these moments in time people who have something in them that is about empathy, about care, about a sense of responsibility for their brother and sister,” Harris said. “We need you all.”
“We will not be defeated, we will not be deterred, we will not throw up our hands when it’s time to roll up our sleeves,” she said.
She also pushed for gun control, blaming guns themselves for Hale’s rampage.
“Three educators and three babies – nine years old – were murdered senselessly due to gun violence,” she said.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Image “Day of Action” by Rev. Stephen A. Green.
