Expelled Tenneesse Lawmakers Reinstated
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There are 2,064 news articles covering this topic.
56% (1,147) are left-leaning, 32% (670) are centrist, and 12% (247) are right-leaning.
On Wednesday, the second of two Black Democratic state legislators expelled from Tennessee’s Republican-led House was reappointed. Left-leaning articles highlight that the reinstatement of Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) was less certain than his counterpart because four Republicans sat on the voting commission, while right-leaning articles highlight that Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) had taken part in May 2020 protests for Black Lives Matter.
USA Today published a centrist article reporting that after a unanimous vote by Shelby County’s attending commissioners, Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) will return to his post in the Tennessee House, joining Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) who was reinstated earlier this week. The pair had been expelled from the House for leading gun-reform protests in the chamber following the shooting at a Nashville elementary school in March. The expulsions drew national scrutiny from the White House and high-profile Senators.
A left-leaning article by The Washington Post highlighted that the vote to reinstate Pearson was less certain than Jones’s because the Shelby County 13-person commission included four Republicans—who did not attend on the day of the vote. The two lawmakers currently occupy interim positions and will need to win special elections later in the year to keep their seats; both have said they will run. Hundreds of supporters attended the commission’s vote having marched in from the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, the same place where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in April of 1968.
A right-leaning article by Fox News highlighted that Jones, one of the “Tennessee Three,” had participated in Black Lives Matter protests in Nashville in 2020. He was charged with a crime for allegedly standing on a police car but was later let off. The article includes a video of Jones and a fellow activist standing on top of a police car surrounded by “rowdy and seemingly uncontrollable” activists.
From the center
Second of two Tennessee lawmakers expelled by Republican majority reappointed Wednesday
USA Today