Democratic state Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville speaks before his colleagues voted to expel him from the House on Thursday. Constitutional scholars say such measures are very rare – and have uncertain consequences.
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Democratic state Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville speaks before his colleagues voted to expel him from the House on Thursday. Constitutional scholars say such measures are very rare – and have uncertain consequences.
Seth Herald/Getty Images
It is rare for any legislative body in the United States to expel a member — most states They allegedly never did. Even in that context, the circumstances in Tennessee — where the Republican-led House expelled two Black legislators — stand out.
“Most of the dismissal involved criminal conduct or abusive behaviornot suppression of dissent or the targeting of political opponents,” state constitutional law expert Miriam Seifter told NPR in an email. “Tennessee’s expulsions are therefore an extremely troubling outlier.”
Warnings of a “level concerning democratic dysfunction”
Reps. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, were fired not for committing crimes but for violating the rules of decorum. They used a bullhorn on the House floor, spoke without being recognized and led protests calling for gun restrictions as Republicans, who have a supermajority in the chamber, stood their ground.
“I think it’s impressive that the state legislature would even seek to expel them for this kind of behavior, let alone actually manage to gather enough votes to expel them,” Anita Krishnakumar, who studies legislation and interpretation, told NPR statute at the Georgetown University Law Center. in an email.
But the pair have now been removed, months into their two-year tenure. The third House Democrat, Rep. Gloria Johnson, narrowly escaped expulsion.
“What happened this week in Tennessee was an exercise of power used to send a political message: dissent and refusal to conform will not be tolerated,” Vanderbilt University’s Carrie Russell told NPR. senior lecturer in political science, in an email.
Many state legislatures and the US Congress have similarly broad disciplinary powers. But that authority has been used sparingly. Before this week, the two most recent expulsions in the Tennessee House were made by overwhelmingly bipartisan votes to impeach members on criminal or ethical grounds, rather than a supermajority that imposes the will. her
“Legislative gun discipline reveals a disturbing level of democratic dysfunction,” said Seifter, who is the co-director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of ‘Wisconsin. She added, “suggests that more attention should focus on government at the state level.”
“Undemocratic actions are much easier to track if state institutions receive limited scrutiny,” Seifter said.
It is especially rare for a legislature to expel members for actions related to substantive policy disagreements.
The precedents extend back to the Civil War and Reconstruction
This is the first time multiple Tennessee lawmakers have been fired in a single legislative session since 1866, when Tennessee was struggling to enact citizenship rights for formerly enslaved people after the Civil War.
“The expulsion of six members from the Tennessee legislature in July 1866 was for ‘contempt of the authority of this House,'” Vanderbilt University’s Russell, senior lecturer in political science, told NPR .
“Specifically, the sanction of expulsion was used because the representatives refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment (a necessary condition for the readmission of Tennessee to the Union),” said Russell. By expelling members, the chamber can reach its majority threshold more easily.
Demonstrators listen from the balcony of the Tennessee House during a protest to demand action on gun reform laws and to support three lawmakers who faced an impeachment vote — in what experts call an extraordinary disciplinary move .
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Demonstrators listen from the balcony of the Tennessee House during a protest to demand action on gun reform laws and to support three lawmakers who faced an impeachment vote — in what experts call an extraordinary disciplinary move .
Seth Herald/Getty Images
“So even then, it was used to tax dissenters,” Russell added.
The Reconstruction-era precedent, Krishnakumar says, “underscores the fact that this is an unusual and rare step for a legislature to take — and that it’s something that legislatures don’t tend to do in times of normal politics.”
Noting the intense political polarization and division of the post-Civil War years, Krishnakumar said, “I don’t think it’s an accident that we have to go back to that era to see similar behavior from a legislature.”
Will other states see similar efforts?
Of course, the current environment of intense political polarization extends beyond Tennessee. So, can majorities in other state legislatures follow suit, firing politicians they can’t agree with?
“At this point, it seems unlikely” that it will become a broad model, Seifter said.
“Unlike other ways that state legislatures can strengthen their power or act in a countermajoritarian fashion (a model I wrote about here), disciplinary actions are typically self-limiting,” she added.
One big reason: Even if a legislature succeeds in ousting a lawmaker, the state body probably won’t have a say in what happens to that seat. In Tennessee, county or metro councils in affected districts can name an interim legislator — and officials they say they will reinstate Rep. Justin Jones, for example.
In addition, Seifter said, “politically motivated expulsions are likely to be unpopular and mobilize opponents.”
Still, Krishnakumar notes that in highly polarized times, elected officials are looking for ways to score points with their supporters and antagonize the opposing party.
She added, “This type of dismissal, while very problematic from a democratic point of view, provides a good way to score those points.”
