This is a story about nazis, the rock group Paramore, a folk singer, and the GOP members of the Tennessee State House. Bear with me. It all comes together in the end.
First, the nazis: Last Saturday afternoon, a group of 30 or so white men demonstrated on the grounds of the state capitol in Nashville. They carried nazi flags, wore face masks (naturally), and red T-shirts proclaiming that they were members of a group called “Blood Tribe.” They then walked in loose formation down Broadway, along sidewalks filled with tourists.
The march was videoed by dozens of people, including by one brave stalwart who walked alongside the group, screaming, “Cowards!! Cowards!! Show your faces!!” They didn’t because — duh — they’re cowards. That video was posted on X and went viral.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, Blood Tribe members exalt Hitler as a deity, a reincarnation of the Norse god Wotan. They are “a hard-core white supremacist group, that sees themselves as the last remaining bulwark against enemies of the white race and the only path to a white ethno-state.” Blood Tribe members “emphasize hyper-masculinity,” and the group does not allow female members.
Here’s my favorite part: Once accepted into the Blood Tribe, “members take part in an initiation ceremony during which they cut themselves using the group’s ceremonial spear and then rub their blood on the shaft of the spear.” Uh huh.
Also possibly notable is the fact that the group’s first public demonstration was in March 2023, when they protested a drag queen story hour in Wadsworth, Ohio. According to news reports, attendees “wore matching red sweaters, waved swastika flags, and held a banner that read, ‘There will be blood.’” No word on whether their shoes matched their outfits.
But there’s really nothing funny about nazis, no matter how un-self-aware they are, unless hyper-toxic masculinity and ignorant racism amuse you. These guys are evil thugs, even if they are afraid to show their faces.
Among many others catching the nazis on phone video last Saturday were state Representative Justin Pearson of Memphis and state Representative Justin Jones of Nashville — the two Black members of the “Tennessee Three” who were excommunicated from the state legislature last summer for advocating for gun reform in the House chamber. Pearson and Jones (who were reinstated by special elections) both denounced the Blood Tribe march and referenced their GOP colleagues in their X posts about the group.
Jones said: “This is exactly what my Republican colleagues’ hate speech is fostering and inviting.” Pearson said: “Tragically, [the Blood Tribe’s] views are shared by many who I serve alongside on the other side of the aisle.”
Too harsh, you say? This is where Paramore and the folk singer come in. The Nashville-based rock band won Grammys for Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance. The folksinger, also from Nashville, was Allison Russell, who won a Grammy for Best American Roots Performance. Jones made what is typically a perfunctory consent calendar resolution — noncontroversial motions that the legislature passes en masse — to honor both artists for their awards.
But, oops. Nope. GOP House Speaker Jeremy Faison removed the resolution honoring Russell from the consent calendar, saying he had been approached by other GOP members with questions about Russell “which made it appropriate for us to press pause on that particular resolution.”
What questions? He couldn’t say. Here’s a guess: Russell is Black. The members of Paramore are white. The GOP reps decided to “press pause” on the Black woman because as they have shown time and time again, they are country-ass, cousin-humpin’ racist tools. In a real democracy, you could put that resolution on the consent calendar and take it to the bank.
Too harsh? I’m pretty sure Faison doesn’t like it when people bring up the 2022 incident in which he ran onto a basketball court during a game (between two “Christian” academies, no less) and attempted to “de-pants a referee” because he disagreed with a call. Probably should have pressed pause on that move, Jeremy.
To their credit, the lead singer of Paramore said the group would decline the “honor” from the legislature unless Russell was also honored. Oh, and if you’re still wondering about that “press pause” business? Last year, Russell criticized GOP legislators for enacting legislation targeting LGBTQ rights and banning drag shows.
The Tennessee House of Representatives chamber was hot Tuesday but the vibe from the Speaker’s seat was icy cold at times, particularly when aimed at two-thirds of The Tennessee Three.
The House returned to business Tuesday morning after officially gaveling in the special session on public safety late Monday afternoon. That session brought some contentious rules from Republican lawmakers that sought to limit protests and limited what lawmakers could and could not say.
Back on the House floor Tuesday at 9 a.m., lawmakers organized the business of the session — what bills were assigned to committees and which legislators would comprise those committees.
The road to the moment was violent and turbulent. A Nashville school shooting claimed the lives of three nine-year-old students and three adults. Police also shot and killed the shooter. Protestors swarmed the Capitol in April, begging and shaming lawmakers for action on gun reform. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee promised a special session on gun violence that many of his own party did not support. Once called, busloads of protestors and gun-reform advocates piled into buses to Nashville, where they rallied, marched, chanted, and sang.
While the moment in the House chamber Tuesday was serious, lawmakers are people, too. Discussing unfinished business, Rep. Joe Towns (D-Memphis) maybe took liberties with procedure and addressed an elephant in the room.
“Look, I know Tennessee is not broke,” Towns began. “We’ve got plenty of money. Why is it so hot in this joint? This building is burning up.”
To that, House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) said his office had been working with maintenance staff to get the air conditioning turned back on in the building. Towns reminded the Speaker that Tennessee is a right to work state and that “we need to fire somebody.” The light-hearted comment brought chuckles in the chamber.
Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) did not get such a straight answer or warm reception from Sexton when he asked a similar question later in the floor session.
Pearson was sworn back in to his office Monday. That came after he and Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) were expelled from the House earlier this year for a floor protest advocating gun reform. The national attention of the act brought heat to Sexton and the state GOP, and Jones and Pearson would continue to be a thorn in their sides.
If this wasn’t enough to cool the relationship between Pearson and Sexton, consider that two weeks ago, Pearson flatly called Sexton a “racist” in a Memphis Flyer story. To say the least, an exchange between the two Tuesday was contentious.
“I know we were talking earlier about air conditioning and things like that, but we’ve had lots of people coming to the Capitol to protest, and have their voices heard in this extreme heat and in this weather, and the water fountains here at the at the Capitol seem to have been turned off or not working,” Pearson said to Sexton, asking for information.
“That’s an inaccurate statement; that is not accurate,” Sexton said, quickly. “We’ve checked. That’s been a misrepresentation.” He, then, quickly moved on to recognize another lawmaker.
Not satisfied with the answer, however, Pearson later asked Sexton to clarify what he meant about the water fountains. Sexton said to his knowledge the water fountains were never turned off. On its face, the exchange seems simple. But just under the surface were hints at, perhaps, some possible GOP conspiracy to make the Capitol uncomfortable for those seeking gun control. Sexton’s quick and icy demeanor on the question seemed to hint that he knew an accusation lurked beneath the question.
Later, during an exchange with Jones, Sexton’s icy demeanor returned, this time showing him flex his legislative muscle with procedural rules on topics he seemingly wanted to avoid.
“I’m still seeking an answer as to whether members who were stripped of committee [assignments] will be restored to their rightful committees that you removed them from on April 3rd,” Jones began. Sexton immediately gaveled down the question, saying “you’re out of order” before Jones finished speaking.
Sexton moved on quickly but Jones asked why his question was out of order and why Sexton silenced his microphone. Instead of replying himself, Sexton let the House clerk explain to Jones that the body was on unfinished business and his question fell outside the scope of discussion.
“So members can ask about the heat in the building, but I I can’t ask about committees [that] constituents sent me here to represent them on?” Jones asked. ”Is that that what you’re telling me?”
Sexton, again, dodged the question, allowing the clerk to explain again about rules, finally explaining that “the House Speaker makes rulings on what is in order and not in order.” Sexton quickly moved on to other business.
If anything, the exchanges set the tone for what promises to be a turbulent session, even one so limited to a narrow slate of topics (that does not include gun reform). And it all happened before any real discussion began on the actual, meaty topics before the Tennessee General Assembly.
Committees have been scheduled on both the House and Senate sides of the legislature. Many of them are set to get underway Wednesday. The House isn’t set to meet for floor votes until noon Thursday.
After last week’s vote by state House Republicans to expel Democrats Justin Pearson, Justin Jones, and Gloria Johnson over their gun-safety demonstration on the House floor, there were recriminations to be had.
In particular, GOP state Rep. Jody Barrett (R-Dickson) had to fend off his Republican colleagues for his ‘no’ vote to expel Gloria Johnson. That vote caused the expel resolution in her case to fail, and for the GOP members to be assailed for racism.
Besides Barrett, the GOP talkers are Jason Zachary, Knoxville, who begins by saying, “The Democrats are not our friends”; Johnny Garrett, Goodlettsville; Majority Leader William Lamberth, Portland; and Scott Cepicky, Culleoka. Cepicky is the one who believes the outcome of things is a threat to the existence of the Republic and who maintains, “You got to be what’s right, even if you think it’s wrong.”
Justin Pearson takes the pledge of allegiance on
Wednesday. Credit: Jackson Baker
The first-floor auditorum of the Vasco Smith County Building has been jam-packed before, but never with so many members of the national media, as it was on Wednesday afternoon when the Shelby County Commission met to consider a vote that would return Justin J. Pearson to the state House, whose Republican supermajority had expelled him a week earlier.
It was the second time this year that Memphis had become the scene of such attention — the other occasion being the tragedy of Tyre Nichols, slain by five errant Memphis cops.
Wednesday’s event, by contrast with that one, was pure celebration.
Representatives of various TV networks were chagrined to find the plug-ins for their mics and cameras not working, but they persevered as best they could in their determination to provide live feeds to the nation. Locals were there in force as well, and other legislators from Nashville, and Congressman Steven Cohen, and — frankly, there was no counting them all.
Soon to be looking for a place to sit or stand were members of what was said to a supportive 500-person march, led by Justin Jones of Nashville and Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, the other members, with Pearson, of the Tennessee Three. Jones had been expelled, along with Pearson, for demonstrating on the House floor in favor of gun-safety legislation. Nashville’s Metro Council had voted on Monday to send hm back to the legislature.
Justin’s father was asked to open the meeting with a prayer and obliged.
Wasting no time, chairman Mickell Lowery, a constituent of Pearson’s District 86, advised Pearson, who sat expectantly on the first row, “we’re all with you.”
Lowery called the roll and promptly asked for a vote on returning Pearson to the legislature.Voting aye, along with himself, were six other Democrats — Shante Avant, Miska Bibbs, Henri Brooks, Edmund Ford, Charlie Caswell, and Erika Sugarmon.
That was a quorum, and that was a Yes.
When the seven votes were properly recorded, the crowd whooped thunderously. So much for chairman Lowery’s dutiful admonition in advance that crowd responses should be either thumbs up or thumbs down.
Responding, Pearson said the GOP’s House majority hadn’t reckoned with the Shelby County Commission. He praised the “moral courage of Memphis, Tennessee.”
He further proclaimed, “We never bow, we never break, we never bend …We’re tired of business as usual. We do not speak alone. We speak together. You can’t expel hope, you can’t expel justice … and you sure as hell can’t expel our fight.”
He concluded, “Let’s get back to work!”
There was another collective whoop, and, with that, the Tennessee state House was reconstituted as had been duly elected.
Posted to Facebook by Blount County
Democratic Party
Memphis on the internet.
The Tennessee Three
Last week’s wild ride ended with the expulsion of two Black Tennessee House members, but one of the Tennessee Three (the white one) remained. It also yielded some quality memes about the rare moment of Memphis/Nashville solidarity like this one.
Posted to Reddit by u/MrAnonyMousetheGreatPosted to Reddit by u/runfreedog
Rumors swirled all over the MEMernet that Memphis could lose its funding for sporting infrastructure improvements and other projects if Justin Pearson was sent back to the Tennessee General Assembly. For guidance, many sought a statement from Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, who they said was publicly silent on the topic.
Justin J. Pearson, Gloria Johnson, and Justin Jones, known as the “Tennessee Three,” faced expulsion from the state legislature. (Photo: John Partipilo | Tennessee Lookout)
Back in January, Justin J. Pearson, a lean, intense young Memphian with a throwback Afro, had easily beaten several opponents in a special primary election for state House District 86, earning thereby an appointment to the legislature from the Shelby County Commission. He would later be sworn in as a formally elected member of the Tennessee legislature after the Shelby County General Election of March 14th made him official.
For the March swearing-in ceremony, he wore a dashiki under a suit coat — surely a clue to the custodians of the Republican supermajority that, as the successor to the late venerable Democratic populist Barbara Cooper in House District 86, here was a sparkling new wine in an unfamiliar bottle.
At the age of 28, Pearson was already the winner of a David-vs.-Goliath struggle, having led a successful yearlong effort — with allies like former Vice President Al Gore, no less — against a proposed oil pipeline in South Memphis.
Now, his arena was the hidebound oligarchy of the state House of Representatives, managed monolithically by Republicans. He would be a member of that body for only a few more days, during which he continued to endure the rookie syndrome of being routinely denied speaking time and of having his mic turned off on the rare occasions when he happened to get the floor.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Nashville, a troubled young assassin with an assault rifle entered a local school one morning and, before being felled by police, methodically shot to death six people, including three 9-year-olds.
Motivated by a sense of horror that pervaded all of Tennessee, Pearson insisted on addressing this issue and demanded that the House consider genuine, effective gun-safety legislation to quell what had become a national epidemic of firearms crimes.
He was joined by the entire Democratic caucus in this effort and, in particular, by two caucus colleagues — schoolteacher Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, a liberal’s liberal, and 27-year-old Justin Jones of Nashville, a silver-tongued exponent of justice and direct action like Pearson himself.
Jones, flanked by Pearson and Johnson, speaks into a megaphone on the House floor during a March 30th session. (Photo: John Partipilo | Tennessee Lookout)
The Tennessee Three
What happened next became a worldwide cause célèbre. Denied speaking time once again, the three took to the well of the House out of order, rousing the people in the filled-up gallery, who were spillovers from the thousands-strong crowds outside who had come to the Capitol from all over Tennessee to demand action on guns, including among their shouted slogans “Fuck Bill Lee!” — a rebuke to the GOP governor who, the year before, had steered the passage of “open-carry” legislation.
The three legislators in the well chanted their message in solidarity, and, after House Speaker Cameron Sexton turned off their microphones, Pearson and Jones employed megaphones to address the galleries.
That session of the House would dissolve into a recess called by an enraged Sexton, who would shortly let it be known that the two Justins and Johnson would face an expulsion vote.
The three pathfinders, driven by their own inner sense of decorum, had found themselves in a circumstance that the great civil rights icon John Lewis at Selma had called “good trouble” — that of having to face a difficult test in the name of a good cause. In Lewis’ case in 1965, that had meant exposing oneself to police truncheons and being trampled by stallions in the pursuit of the right to vote.
Exalting in the iconic phrase, Justin Jones gave that name, “good trouble,” to the gathering predicament of the Tennessee Three, as the outside world was beginning to call them.
A vote on their survival as members of the legislative body was scheduled to take place last Thursday before a greatly amplified worldwide audience attuned to various electronic media sources.
The outcome, which saw youthful firebrands Pearson and Jones convicted via the lockstep power of the GOP supermajority, became an instant scandal, made more so by the reprieve from expulsion of Johnson by a single vote. Fairly or not, a consensus emerged that quite possibly the jurors’ racism accounted for the narrow escape of Johnson, a self-described “60-year-old white schoolteacher.”
One participant in the expulsion drama, former state Representative John Mark Windle of Livingston, was a bridge of sorts between last week’s events and another era of tumult at the Capitol in 2001. That was the time of an anti-income-tax riot, and the crowds then were fully as numerous — and as furious — as last week’s but motivated more by naked self-interest than by righteous civic indignation.
Then a young House member, Windle had been sitting in the first-floor office of then-Governor Don Sundquist, who had proposed the soon-to-be-doomed state income tax, when a brick Windle described as football-sized came smashing through one of the glass panels of the governor’s window. By contrast, the crowds last week were animated but conspicuously nonviolent.
Windle, a moderate and former Democrat, had been defeated by a conservative Republican in 2022, when he ran for reelection as an Independent. Last week, he returned to the Capitol as one of two permitted legal advisors on the floor for Johnson. The other was former House minority leader Mike Stewart of Nashville.
Perhaps their advice was useful and somewhat exculpatory. While keeping the faith with fellow crusaders Jones and Pearson, Johnson noted that she had not wielded a megaphone nor raised her voice unduly in speaking for gun-safety legislation. “What is my crime?” she demanded.
Raising Their Voices
Who, indeed, were the actual malefactors? The Tennessee Three, whose highly public moment in defiance of the House rules followed days in which they were not allowed to speak their convictions? Or the GOP supermajority, whose legislative response to the shooting tragedy at Nashville’s Covenant School had been to turn a deaf ear to the pleading crowds and call instead for more guns, proposing to arm teachers and harden school security forces? Or, for that matter, Governor Lee, he of the open-carry law, whose concessions to the NRA and the Tennessee Firearms Association over the years had been numerous and notorious?
Speaking on ABC’s This Week program this past Sunday, Justin Pearson took pains to characterize the parties to last week’s events right, starting with the protesters: “It is young people; it’s children and teenagers by the thousands, who continue to protest, who continue to march, who continue to raise their voices to say we need to do something to end gun violence, we need to make sure that we’re banning assault weapons, we need red flag laws, we need gun storage safety laws in our state that are going to help to propel this movement.
“And I pray to God to be able to use my voice as a member of the state legislature to represent Memphis and Shelby County and Millington to continue to fight to pass reasonable, sensible legislation that the majority of people in Tennessee want. The reality is we have a supermajority Republican legislature that doesn’t want to see progress, that prefers to listen to the NRA, rather than the constituents.
“And in fact, the speaker had the audacity to call some of those children and some of those parents and grandparents insurrectionists, likening them to January 6th, because they’re demanding that their voices be heard in a democracy, which is what we have a responsibility to ensure [so that] every person feels that they have a voice in democracy and will not be silenced.”
In the aftermath of it all, the world is about to change. Locally, there are complications. Rumors abound that a promised $350 million state outlay to Memphis for infrastructure improvements could be in jeopardy if the Shelby County Commission votes to reappoint Justin Pearson to the vacated District 86 House seat. A similar amount to benefit the Regional One medical center may also be on the line.
Interviewed on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Pearson acknowledged his willingness to return to the legislature via a Commission vote and warned, “I’ve already heard that people in the state legislature and in Nashville are actually threatening our Shelby County commissioners to not reappoint me or they’re going to take away funding that’s in the governor’s budget for projects that the mayor and others have asked for.”
The 13-member Commission, dominated by nine confident and assertive activist Democrats, will hold a special called meeting this week and is expected to reappoint Pearson anyhow, the torpedoes be damned. Nashville’s Metro Council will have already acted on Monday on Jones’ behalf. By some reckonings, the two could be reinstated as early as this week — though it is possible the GOP supermajority might find a way not to seat them.
“We will continue to resist.”
Meanwhile, the Tennessee House has been effectively disgraced by its action in expelling Pearson and Jones when lesser sanctions, like censure, were available for the infraction of being out of parliamentary order.
It has been ceaselessly and correctly pointed out that previous House expellees had committed actual offenses — like Republican state Representative Jeremy Durham in 2016, who was adjudged by a Speaker-appointed investigating committee to have been guilty of more than 20 separate acts of sexual harassment. (Sam Whitson of Franklin, Durham’s successor in District 65, would coincidentally — and perhaps ironically — be the only Republican who voted against expulsion for every one of the Tennessee Three last week.)
And there was the case of the House member — never quite precisely identified but widely assumed to be a certain flamboyant arch-conservative from rural West Tennessee — who, a few seasons back, urinated on the chair of fellow Republican Rick Tillis, a moderate who had been critical of the House leadership. No investigation, no calls for ouster, or even censure.
Meanwhile, each of the two Justins has become a media star and an incipient leader of a re-galvanized — and expanded — movement for justice and civil rights.
It is even possible that serious efforts to ban assault weapons and provide other remedies like red flag laws can be accelerated — though not likely in Tennessee, once known as a moderate bellwether state and now entombed in Trumpian, Deep South mediocrity.
This is a legislature — “the most mean-spirited and vindictive I can remember,” says state Representative Dwayne Thompson of Shelby’s suburban District 96 — whose idea of progress is to pass bans on drag shows, to humble and block the state’s LGBTQ community at every turn, and to make sure that transgender youths receive no medical support, nor is it any kinder to the state’s straight population — conspiring to keep labor unions out of Tennessee’s new car plants and to reject the federal government’s proffered billion-dollar bounties to expand Medicaid in an age of increased need, with the state’s hospitals desperate and failing.
Numerous liberation movements now abound, like those involving gender identity. Others simply seek the age-old chimera of economic justice.
And it passes strange that common-sense legislative efforts to protect human beings from assault by gun-wielding murderers should be controversial at all and unworthy even of discussion by a state legislature.
Pearson and Jones are at a crossroads. They stand ready to return to the place of their expulsion and use their momentum, their zeal, their eloquence, and, let us face it, their celebrity, to move the entrenched mountains of indifference and privilege there to make room for new ideas, to meet new needs, and, by their example, to summon others to the cause.
Young Pearson’s celebrity, in particular, seems to have no bounds. In addition to his multiple national talk-show appearances on Sunday, he was a cynosure that day at First Unitarian Church of Memphis, where he preached from the pulpit.
The Old Order in the legislature may attempt once more to ostracize its two outcasts upon their return and to ignore their social gospel, a mix of up-to-the-minute secularism and old-fashioned spirituality. It will doubtless try to deny the two their seats on some technicality, and a new battle could commence.
But the Republican supermajority is now on notice. As Justin Jones told NBC’s Chuck Todd on Sunday, “We are in the midst of a third Reconstruction, beginning here in Nashville. And the message is that we will continue to resist.”
The Tennessee Three — Gloria Johnson, Justin Pearson, and Justin Jones (Photo: John Partipilo | Tennessee Lookout)
“We are talking about nothing less than 75 people overruling the wishes of 78,000 people! And you’re gonna cut off debate? Give me a break! Is this a circus? If you can’t sit through a conversation or a debate on something no less than expelling a colleague … you don’t belong here!”
Democratic Representative John Ray Clemons of West Nashville spoke for thousands of Tennesseans last week as he watched his GOP colleagues turn the democratic process into meaningless procedural flimflam. It was a travesty, a mean-spirited exhibition of white men wielding power in the worst possible way.
They did it because they’re used to doing it. They did it because they’ve never paid a price for it, mostly because no one was ever watching before. It was just one of the many tricks the Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives used in the process of expelling three duly elected representatives. These included cutting off Wi-Fi in the galleries, postponing action until late in the day after thousands of demonstrators had arrived for the scheduled morning opening, not allowing the three lawmakers to know what would be expected of them in mounting their defense, showing unattributed video of their protests … and, well, I could go on.
It was an astonishing display of autocracy, ruthlessly leveraged by hypocritical ignoramuses — only this time, the entire world was watching — and instead of suppressing the voices of change, as they so clearly intended to do, the Tennessee GOP instead amplified them in ways they could have never imagined in their wildest fever dreams.
Prior to last week, Justin Pearson, Justin Jones, and Gloria Johnson were known only by their constituents, if that. Now they are household names, appearing on major television networks, here and abroad, meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris, and being invited to the White House. Tens of thousands of dollars are flowing into their fundraising coffers.
To those Republicans responsible, I’d just like to take a moment to say: Nice job, you racist, gun-sucking assholes. You’ve embarrassed yourselves and your state, but mostly yourselves. And it couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of clowns.
There. I feel better. Especially knowing these fools have helped spawn a new generation of activists, one that will stand strong against the only two arrows the Republican Party seems to have left in its pathetic quiver: a Taliban-esque, no-exceptions, anti-abortion platform and a no-permit, total open-carry, pro-assault-weapons agenda. Good luck running on those issues in 2024 and beyond.
And speaking of clowns … How about that Justice Clarence Thomas, amirite? Turns out that for the past couple of decades he’s been taking hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of luxury yacht cruises, resort vacations, and private jet rides courtesy of a right-wing Texas billionaire named Harlan Crow. Crow also founded a side-hustle PAC for Thomas’ wife, Ginni, and paid her a sweet $150,000 a year to run it.
But nope, no corruption to see here, said Clarence. He and Harlan were just friends, he said, adding that he would stop now that he knew it was wrong.
Never mind that Crow is embedded in the activist judicial group, the Federalist Society, and never mind that he has one of the world’s great collections of Hitler memorabilia. Because that’s normal. Right?
Listen, when I began my journalism career, one of the first things I was told is “don’t accept anything from a potential source, not even a cup of coffee.” The reason being, of course, that any hint of impropriety could compromise a story by calling into question the journalist’s impartiality.
The Thomas case is the very definition of compromising someone’s impartiality with favors. And, much as was the case in Nashville, it went on only because no one was watching. How is it remotely possible that the ethics code for a member of the United States Supreme Court is flimsier than that of a newspaper reporter?
It isn’t, and Thomas knows it. Otherwise, he would have reported the largesse extended to him. It’s absurd on its face. If, however, Republicans are still intent on expelling a Black man from office, I do have a suggestion.
The Tennessee House of Representatives recently received correspondence questioning the constitutionality of the expulsion of members Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis.)
In a letter addressed to House Speaker Cameron Sexton, counsel for Jones and Pearson said they are “reviewing these unconstitutional actions to understand how best to remedy them.”
“The House Republicans not only wrongfully stripped these Representatives of their rights as duly elected legislators but also disenfranchised the voters they were elected to represent,” the letter said. “Their partisan expulsion was extraordinary, illegal and without any historical or legal precedent.”
The House expelled Jones and Pearson last Thursday, for “leading a floor protest over gun violence.” While Jones and Pearson were joined in this protest by Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), they were the only two that were expelled. The measure to expel Johnson failed by one vote.
On Monday, April 10th, the Nashville Metropolitan Council voted unanimously to reinstate Jones to the state legislature. The Shelby County Commission is scheduled to vote on Pearson’s reinstatement on Wednesday, April 12th.
According to Tennessee Lookout reporter Adam Friedman, the trio was “accused of violating the House rules of decorum when they took over the speaking podium to lead chants with a crowd protesting the lack of action by lawmakers on gun violence after six were killed — including three children — in a mass shooting at a religious school in Nashville.”
The representatives’ counsel also explained that if both are reappointed, it must lead to “the full and immediate restoration of their rights as members of the House.”
“Representatives Jones and Pearson, if reappointed, should be promptly sworn back in as members of the General Assembly and granted the same benefits, rights, duties, and liberties as any other members of the General Assembly and granted the same benefits, rights, duties, and liberties as any other member,” the letter said.
They also called for the returning of their parking and badge access to the State capitol, healthcare, and status on committees.
The letter also stated that any “retributive action,” such as discrimination, threats, or actions to withhold funding for government programs would “constitute further unconstitutional action that would require redress.
“The world is watching Tennessee,” they said.
The attorneys representing Jones are former U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., C. William Phillips, and R. Gregory Rubio of Covington & Burling LLP. Representing Pearson are Scott J. Crosby, Jef Feibelman, and Sarah E. Stuart of Burch Porter & Johnson.
Reps. Justin Jones, right, Justin Pearson, bottom, and Gloria Johnson, left, bring a megaphone onto the Tennessee House floor on March 30, 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)
The Tennessee House of Representatives voted along party lines to expel Democratic Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from its body for leading a floor protest over gun violence one week ago, but Rep. Gloria Johnson survived expulsion by one vote.
The expulsion vote against Jones, D-Nashville, was 72-25, and 69-26 against Pearson, D-Memphis. It needed 66 votes it pass.
The vote against Johnson, D-Knoxville, was 65-30, one short of the number needed to expel as seven Republicans voted to keep her.
The trio is accused of violating the House rules of decorum when they took over the speaking podium to lead chants with a crowd protesting the lack of action by lawmakers on gun violence after six were killed — including three children — in a mass shooting at a religious school in Nashville.
Rep. Charlie Baum, R-Murfressboro, was the only Republican to vote against kicking Jones out. Rep. Sam Whitson, R-Franklin, was present but did not vote on Jones’ expulsion resolution.
The expulsion hearing for Jones went on for nearly two hours.
Reps. Jody Barrett, R-Dickson; Rush Bricken, R-Tullahoma; Bryan Richey, R-Maryville; Lowell Russell, R-Vonore; Mike Sparks, R-Smyrna; Baum and Whitson voted against removing Johnson. Reps. John Gillespie, R-Memphis, and Bryan Terry, R-Murfreesboro, were present but abstained from voting.
The expulsion hearing for Johnson lasted 90 minutes.
Baum, Gillespie and Richey voted against expelling Pearson. Whitson was present but did not vote to remove Pearson.
The expulsion hearing for Pearson lasted 90 minutes.
Twitter thread of the expulsion hearing
OK, so now in the expulsion hearings @JRClemmons, an attorney, is trying to make the point that the video the GOP just showed “was in direct violation” of house rules disallowing members to shoot video on the floor. “Are we going to punish them as well?”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Democrats in jeopardy: (from left) Justin Pearson, Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones (Photo: John Partipilo | Tennessee Lookout)
Not since the income tax riots of 2001 has the Tennessee state capitol building in Nashville seen such intensity. Monday’s session of the General Assembly, which included the introduction of resolutions in the House threatening the expulsion of three Democratic state representatives, concluded with the crowded galleries shouting epithets — including “fascists” — at members of the Republican supermajority.
Outside the capitol, worse things were being chanted by massive crowds at the expense of GOP Governor Bill Lee, who, like the Republican lawmakers, was faulted for inaction on gun safety following last week’s gun massacre at a Nashville Christian school.
“Eff Bill Lee!” the demonstrators chanted.
The three Democrats in jeopardy — representatives Gloria Johnson of Knoxville and Justin Jones of Nashville, along with Memphis first-termer Justin Pearson — had gone to the well of the House last Thursday, and, with the aid of bullhorns, encouraged protesters in the galleries to keep demanding action on guns.
A vote on expulsion of the three will probably take place Thursday, along with, equally probably, energetic new protests on their behalf and for gun-safety legislation.
• On Thursday this week, Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins will hold a status conference on suits by mayoral candidates Floyd Bonner and Van Turner against an apparent edict by the Shelby County Election Commission (SCEC) requiring five years of prior residence in Memphis for candidates.
Neither candidate could clear a strict interpretation of the SCEC’s edict, which is included on the Commission’s website via a link to an opinion from former Commission chair Robert Meyers.
Jenkins gave a preliminary ruling last Friday against the SCEC’s effort to include the city of Memphis as a co-respondent against the suits.
• There was some unprecedented attention given to the matter of county contracts at Monday’s public meeting of the Shelby County Commission, and it all started while the body was considering the meeting’s “consent agenda,” ordinarily regarded as routine and largely consisting of pre-screened items.
With Democratic member Britney Thornton in the lead and with fellow Democrats Erika Sugarmon and Henri Brooks, among others, taking part, members kept county financial officers and economic opportunity administrator Shep Wilbun in the well for more than an hour answering detailed questions about each and every contract up for a vote, including many that appeared to be essentially maintenance matters.
The two basic questions were: How many bids were there for the contract? And how many bidders were minority? In most cases there was an obvious and even enormous disparity in the two numbers, which was, of course, the point of the questioners.
