Seven members of the Shelby County Commission quickly resolved to reappoint Democratic Rep. Justin J. Pearson to the Tennessee House of Representatives Wednesday, less than a week after Republicans removed him and one other Black Democrat along a party-line vote for a breach of decorum. They and one other Democrat had staged a brief anti-gun violence protest during a session, which was a violation of House Rules.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton characterized the actions of Rep. Pearson, Rep, Justin Jones of Nashville and Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville as an insurrection.
Rep. Johnson, a white woman, was spared expulsion when several Republicans voted with Democrats against the resolution to expel her.
The expulsions created national political shockwaves because not only are such actions rare in Tennessee, they are typically brought for politicians engaging in egregious criminal behavior. Neither Pearson nor Jones committed a crime.
President Joe Biden had called the two expulsions "shocking, undemocratic and without precedent."
Wednesday's vote by the County Commission was 7-0, with six people absent including all four Republican commissioners.
Pearson was new the legislature, sworn in Feb. 9 to fill the District 86 seat left vacant by the death of long-time Rep. Barbara Cooper, who was elected posthumously.
The reappointments of Reps. Pearson and Jones are temporary; both will still need to be reelected in a special election.
Pearson is expected to be sworn back into state government Thursday morning, allowing him to serve out the remainder of this session.
At Wednesday's commission vote, chair Mickell Lowery quickly got underway — "let us knock out this meeting here" — moments before the vote to reinstate Pearson was called.
At a press conference following the vote, Rep. Pearson noted that before the protest in the statehouse by the so-called "Tennessee Three," Republicans only wished to address further deregulation of weapons in the state.
Gov. Bill Lee has since expressed interest in a possible "Red Flag" law which would allow authorities to remove firearms from potentially dangerous people.
"It seems like when people break a little bit of decorum, we break through the status quo to create justice," Rep. Pearson said. "And we are going to continue to take this momentum and this movement to push for laws, not just executive orders, that really help protect people. Not just in schools, but in banks, in churches, in our neighborhoods and in our communities."
