Expelled Fil-Am legislator Justin Jones reinstated in Tennessee

Rep. Justin Jones leaves the Historic Metro Courthouse after being reinstated days after the Republican majority Tennessee House of Representatives voted to expel two Democratic members, representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, for their roles in a gun control demonstration on the statehouse floor, outside the Historic Metro Courthouse in Nashville, Tenn., April 10, 2023. Cheney Orr/Reuters

Thirty-six Nashville Metropolitan Council members on Monday unanimously voted to reinstate Black Filipino American state legislator Justin Jones who was expelled last week for protesting gun violence on the House floor. In less than an hour, Jones was sworn in on the steps of the state Capitol.

After Monday’s council meeting, hundreds of demonstrators who assembled outside the Metro Nashville Courthouse marched to the Tennessee State Capitol, chanting, “This is what democracy looks like” as Jones and fellow lawmaker Justin Pearson, who was also expelled, marched with them.

Jones and fellow Black Democrat Pearson were expelled on Thursday after they and state Rep. Gloria Johnson led protesters on the house floor in calling for gun control measures after a shooting at a Nashville school killed six people, including three 9-year-old children.

The three broke House rules by using a bullhorn, and Republican House leaders voted to expel Jones and Pearson from the Legislature. Johnson, who is white, was spared.

Meanwhile, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners will meet Wednesday to consider reappointing Pearson to his seat. Tennessee Democrats on Tuesday will press for his reinstatement.

Pearson was quoted by NBC News: “When you have people who make comments about hanging you on a tree and hanging Black people on a tree as a form of capital punishment, when you wear a dashiki on the House floor and a member gets up and they talk about your dashiki saying it’s unprofessional, they’re really sending signals that you don’t belong here.”

Democrats in Washington have rallied around Jones and Pearson since their expulsion. Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Nashville on Friday to meet with the “Tennessee Three,” as the group has been called, praising them for “channeling” their constituents’ voices in speaking out against gun violence.

President Joe Biden also called the lawmakers and invited them to visit the White House. He had called their expulsion “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent.”

In a joint statement after Jones’s reinstatement, William Lamberth and Jeremy Faison, who lead Tennessee’s House Republicans, noted that the state’s constitution “provides a pathway back for expulsion.”

-With reporting by NBC News and Reuters