US Senator Calls for Federal Probe into Tennessee Expulsions
The Tennessee legislature's been "playing games for so long," Sen Warnock complains
A US senator is expecting the federal Justice Department to investigate last week's expulsions of two Black Democratic legislators from the Tennessee state house of representatives.
Sen Raphael Warnock (D-Ga) wants the Justice Department to investigate the removal of Tennessee state Reps Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from their elected posts at the hands of the legislature's Republican majority.
Republicans removed Jones, of Nashville, and Pearson, of Memphis, for taking part in a noisy — but peaceful — protest on the Tennessee house floor to complain about inaction on gun safety reform following the deadly shooting at a private elementary school in Nashville which left six people — including three young children — dead.
Republicans called the Democrats' demonstration a violation of Tennessee House rules.
However, a third Tennessee Democrat, state Rep Gloria Johnson also took part in the demonstration — but was spared expulsion.
Unlike Jones and Pearson, Johnson is white, leaving Tennessee Republicans open to allegations of rampant racism. Johnson, herself, said that she was spared simply for the color of her skin.
Jones and Pearson were reinstated to their positions this week by local commissioners in their respective jurisdictions, just days after their dramatic ouster.
Vice President Kamala Harris also visited with the so-called “Tennessee Three" during a surprise visit to Nashville late last week.
Regardless, the federal government has a role to play in protecting US democracy, according to Warnock.
“Listen, the federal government has a role to play I protecting the integrity of our democracy. Nothing could be more important than that. I am heartened that Rep Pierson and Rep Jones have been rightfully returned to their seats. The city councils in Nashville and in Memphis good the right thing, but this unabashed assault on the very foundation of democracy continues unabated I think this is a very dangerous precedent, and returning them as their local leadership did this week doesn’t solve the problem,” said Warnock, reelected last year to a full term in the US Senate. “I reached out to the Justice Department because I think that it is its duty to investigate whether the constitutional rights, first of, all of the citizens that the represented had been violated. Citizens have a right to decide who’s going to represent them.
“And unfortunately, members of this [Tennessee] state legislature, I think, have been playing games for so long, engaged in partisan and racial gerrymandering, so that right now the Tennessee legislature doesn’t actually look the way that people of Tennessee voted,” Warnock added. “And so, they have been getting away with this, playing these games so long that they have convinced themselves that the people’s house doesn’t belong to the people, it belongs to them. And so, I think there is a role for the federal government to play here, which is why we sent the letter [to the Justice Department] and we will continue to make the case.”
Please support our work…
Also, please subscribe…