Justin Pearson due to be sworn back in to Tennessee statehouse

[April 13, 2023]  By Omar Younis
 
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Tennessee state Representative Justin Pearson is due to be sworn in on Thursday after he was reappointed to the statehouse from which he and another Democratic colleague were expelled for leading a gun protest on the House floor.

Justin J. Pearson gestures after a vote for his reinstatement by the Shelby County Commission, days after the Republican majority Tennessee House of Representatives voted to expel him and Rep. Justin Jones for their roles in a gun control demonstration on the statehouse floor, in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S., April 12, 2023. REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo

Pearson on Wednesday was appointed to his vacated seat by the county legislature that includes his Memphis district. His swearing-in will conclude a whirlwind two weeks that made Tennessee the epicenter of U.S. politics.

Tennessee Republicans on April 6 kicked out Pearson and Justin Jones, another young, Black Democrat, as punishment for breaking rules of decorum a week earlier by leading a protest inside the House chamber in the wake of a school shooting that killed three children and three adults.

Jones was reinstated to his vacated seat by the Nashville-area county legislature on Monday and sworn in on the steps of the capitol in Nashville that same day.

Some 200 miles (320 km) to the west, Pearson was reappointedby the Memphis-area county board on Wednesday and plans to be sworn in around 8 a.m. Central Daylight Time (1300 GMT).

Pearson will be sworn in for the third time this year. He had been appointed to the previously vacant seat in January and won a special election in March.

"We're going to keep fighting to end gun violence. We're going to keep fighting to end environmental racism and injustice," Pearson told reporters after his reappointment.

Tennessee House Republicans, who have a supermajority, have said in a statement they will welcome back any expelled state lawmakers returned by county-level governments, so long as those members follow the legislature's rules. The state constitution gives local legislative bodies the power to appoint interim state representative to fill vacancies until special elections can be held. Jones and Pearson have said they will run in special elections, for which no date has yet been set.

Jones and Pearson helped lead the March 30 demonstration calling for gun control, disrupting a legislative session, along with Democratic Representative Gloria Johnson. They were supported by citizens outraged over the Covenant School shooting.

Johnson narrowly escaped also being expelled for breaching House decorum rules. She told reporters afterward she believed she survived because she is white.

(Reporting by Omar Younis in Nashville; writing by Daniel Trotta; editing by Donna Bryson and Diane Craft)

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