NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In an extraordinary act of political retaliation, Tennessee Republicans on Thursday expelled two Democratic lawmakers from the state Legislature for their role in a protest that called for more gun control in the aftermath of a deadly school shooting in Nashville.
The banishment of Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson was a move the chamber has used only a handful times since the Civil War. Most state legislatures possess the power to expel members, but it is generally reserved as a punishment for lawmakers accused of serious misconduct, not used as a weapon against political opponents.
The GOP supermajority in the House declined by a single vote to expel a third Democrat, Rep. Gloria Johnson.
Johnson joined with Jones and Pearson last week as hundreds of protesters packed the Capitol to call for passage of gun-control measures. While demonstrators filled galleries, the three Democrats approached the front of the House chamber with a bullhorn and participated in a chant.
The protest unfolded days after the shooting at the Covenant School, a private Christian school where six people were killed, including three children.
“We are losing our democracy. This is not normal. This is not OK,” Pearson told reporters as he waited to learn whether he would be banished too. The three “broke a House rule because we’re fighting for kids who are dying from gun violence and people in our communities who want to see an end to the proliferation of weaponry in our communities.”
Johnson, a retired teacher, said her concern about school shootings was personal, recalling a day in 2008 when students came running toward her out of a cafeteria because a student had just been shot and killed there.
“The trauma on those faces, you will never, ever forget. I don’t want to forget it,” she said.