Former state Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville raises his fist on the floor of the Tennessee House chamber as he walks to his desk to collect his belongings after his expulsion from the legislature on April 6, 2023.
AP Photo/George Walker IV
The Metropolitan Council voted to reinstate Justin Jones back to his seat in the Tennessee House.
Jones was ousted from the body over gun control protests alongside then-state Rep. Justin Pearson.
The Shelby County Commission will meet on Wednesday to potentially reinstate Pearson to his seat.
One of the two Black Democratic lawmakers who was expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives last week after leading a protest for gun reform has been reinstated to his position.
The Metropolitan Council, which is the legislative body of Nashville and Davidson County, voted to appoint former state Rep. Justin Jones — the 27-year-old Nashville legislator who was part of a trio of Democrats who pushed for gun control on the House floor — back to his old seat until a special election can be held later this year.
In a unanimous vote, the council decided to send Jones back to the statehouse in Nashville, only weeks after a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville prompted a wave of protests in the capital city for gun control in a state where firearms regulations are lax.
Before the vote, at least 29 members of the 40-member council had indicated that they would vote to send Jones back to the statehouse, which would afford him well over the simple majority necessary to receive the appointment. A special election will then be held later this year.
Last Thursday, the Republican-controlled House voted to remove Jones from his position, alongside then-state Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis, over what GOP leaders said was an attempt by the lawmakers to break the decorum of the institution by taking over the floor and rallying the many protestors who had assembled at the state Capitol.
Pearson could be reinstated on Wednesday by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners, which will assemble for a special meeting to address the legislative vacancy.
While Republicans voted to oust Jones and Pearson, they spared state Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, who had also joined her Democratic colleagues on the floor over the gun reform push.
Johnson, who is white, told CNN last week that it was “pretty clear” why she was able to remain in the House, while her two colleagues were removed.
“I’m a 60-year-old white woman and they are two, young Black men,” she told the network. “In listening to the questions and the way they were questioned and the way they were talked to, I was talked down to as a woman, mansplained to, but it was completely different from the questioning that they got.”
The removals of Jones and Pearson prompted an outcry across the country, including the White House.
“Three kids and three officials gunned down in yet another mass shooting,” President Joe Biden tweeted last Thursday. “And what are GOP officials focused on? Punishing lawmakers who joined thousands of peaceful protesters calling for action.”
“It’s shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent,” he added.
Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Nashville last Friday and spoke at the historically-Black Fisk University, where she railed against the votes and pressed for more firearms regulations, including background checks, red flag laws, and an assault weapons ban.
“Let’s not fall for the false choice: either you’re in favor of the Second Amendment or you want reasonable gun safety laws,” she said. “We can and should do both.”
The vice president also met privately with the three lawmakers.
Oscar Brock, a Republican national committeeman from Tennessee, told The New York Times that the GOP-led votes to remove the two lawmakers from the House were unhelpful to the party.
“If my job, along with other members of the RNC, is to protect the brand of the Republican Party, this didn’t help,” he told the newspaper. “You’ve energized young voters against us. Worse than squandering support, you’ve made enemies where we didn’t need them.”