Justin Pearson becomes second expelled Tennessee lawmaker to be reinstated

Image source, Reuters

A second Tennessee lawmaker, Justin Pearson, has been reinstated, after a unanimous vote from seven members of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners.

His colleague Justin Jones was reinstated to the Tennessee House of Representatives on Monday.

The two Democrats were expelled from the house, controlled by Republicans, last week after a gun control protest.

The expulsion vote happened days after a school shooting in Nashville.

After Wednesday’s vote, Mr Pearson addressed the crowd, saying: “You can’t expel hope. You can’t expel justice. You can’t expel our voice. And you sure can’t expel our fight. We look forward to continuing to fight.”

Republican members had accused three Democrats, Mr Pearson, Mr Jones and State Rep. Gloria Johnson, of bringing “disorder and dishonour to the house” when they joined protesters at the statehouse on 30 March.

Ms Johnson, who is white, had also protested, but narrowly kept her seat in the House vote.

Republicans said the reason they did not expel Ms Johnson was because she played a smaller role the protest and did not use a megaphone.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper appeared at the council meeting on Monday for Mr Jones, where he told the chamber that their expulsion vote was “unprecedented”.

“Let’s give the district their voice back. I call this body to give them their voice back now,” he said.

Mr Jones and Mr Pearson between them represent about 140,000 constituents in the state.

Several constituents told BBC News they felt disenfranchised by the vote to oust the pair, known as The Justins.

The use of expulsion in Tennessee is very rare and had only been used twice since the Civil War – one time for a sitting lawmaker who was convicted of soliciting a bribe, and another for a majority whip who was accused of sexual misconduct.