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tennessee house of representatives
'This Is the Authoritarianism We Are Fighting': Tennessee GOP Silences Justin Jones
"The Capitol is surrounded by troopers. This does not look like a democratic body."
Aug 29, 2023
Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones decried the "authoritarianism" of House Republicans on Monday after they voted to silence him for the remainder of the day's floor session, using newly enacted chamber rules aimed at shutting down members who are deemed out of order.
The Tennessee House's GOP supermajority barred Jones (D-52)—a member of the so-called "Tennessee Three"—from speaking for the rest of Monday's special session after House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-25) ruled that the Democratic lawmaker violated the new rules.
According to The Associated Press, "Jones had been criticizing legislation that would have allowed more law enforcement officers in schools and began listing other resources that the state should be providing."
"What our schools need are mental health professionals," Jones said. "We need funding for mental health, for counselors. We need to pay our teachers better. We don't need more police in our schools."
The GOP's vote to silence Jones sparked fury in the chamber, with Democrats arguing that Sexton is selectively wielding the new rules to target outspoken gun control proponents.
Republicans voted to expel Jones from the House in April after he took to the House floor with a bullhorn to demand action to curb gun violence. The Democrat was reinstated days later and easily won reelection earlier this month.
Jones' fellow Democrats walked off the floor with him following Monday's vote. The Tennessean reported that "Republican lawmakers attempted to get the House floor session back on track after the Democrats left, as members of the gallery above erupted in anger with yells of 'racists' and 'fascists.'"
"Chants only grew louder as state troopers began swarming the gallery to clear it," the newspaper continued. "Demonstrators stayed in their seats as troopers began asking them to leave, but slowly cleared out into the halls to continue chanting."
In a video posted to social media following the walkout, Jones said that "what's happening is not democratic, it is authoritarianism."
"The Capitol is surrounded by troopers," said Jones. "This does not look like a democratic body."
Earlier in the day, Jones announced plans to call for a no-confidence vote against Sexton, citing the Republican leader's alleged misuse of taxpayer funds and other abuses of authority.
Before he was silenced by the Republican supermajority, Jones had intended to introduce his proposal at the end of Monday's session, which marked the start of the second week of a special session aimed at responding to the deadly shooting at Covenant School in Nashville earlier this year.
"The House must perform its duty to hold the speaker to account and exercise an internal check on power," Jones wrote in a letter to his colleagues. "At a time of record low approval ratings for the Legislature, this is not just a vote of no confidence in the speaker but a vote to restore confidence in this body with the people of Tennessee."
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Justin Jones Pushes for No-Confidence Vote Against Tennessee's GOP House Speaker
"It is clear that the house speaker, Cameron Sexton, is determined to continue leading our state down the path to failure, humiliation, and authoritarianism."
Aug 28, 2023
Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones announced Monday that he will be calling for a vote of no confidence against Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton, pointing to multiple allegations of misuse of taxpayer dollars and the Republican's repeated attempts to smear gun violence protesters.
"It is clear that the house speaker, Cameron Sexton, is determined to continue leading our state down the path to failure, humiliation, and authoritarianism," Jones (D-52) wrote in a letter to his Tennessee House colleagues as they prepared to resume a special session ostensibly aimed at generating a legislative response to the deadly shooting at Covenant School in Nashville earlier this year.
Following that shooting, Jones and two fellow Tennessee Democrats took to the House floor with a bullhorn and joined demonstrators in calling for action to curb gun violence.
The Republican-dominated House, with Sexton (R-25) leading the way, responded by voting to expel Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson (D-86). The two Democratic lawmakers were swiftly reinstated by county officials, and both handily won reelection earlier this month.
In his letter on Monday, Jones rattled off a number of accusations that have been leveled against Sexton, including his alleged use of taxpayer funds to "relocate an intern after the former Republican House vice chairman was found to be sexually harassing her."
Jones also cited Sexton's role in the "unprecedented retaliatory effort to expel three duly elected lawmakers, an unapologetic abuse of power debasing the office of the speaker."
"It is for these reasons that the House must perform its duty to hold the speaker to account and exercise an internal check on power," Jones wrote. "At a time of record low approval ratings for the Legislature, this is not just a vote of no confidence in the speaker but a vote to restore confidence in this body with the people of Tennessee."
The Tennessee Legislature's special session got off to a chaotic start last week, with one commentator describing the proceedings as "a conundrum of epic proportions." Both the Tennessee House and Senate have passed a number of bills thus far, but none come anywhere close to the kinds of gun law reform that Jones and other lawmakers and advocates are demanding.
The Tennessee House "has moved forward proposals without the Senate, including one to let people with carry permits bring guns to schools," The Associated Press reported.
Sexton and other House Republicans, meanwhile, have done their best to stifle dissent at the special session. As part of a new slate of rules, GOP lawmakers attempted to ban members of the public from bringing signs into committee rooms—though firearms were still allowed under the rules.
"One mother of children who attend Covenant was left in tears after a subcommittee chair ordered state troopers to clear the room after demonstrators held up small signs, a violation of new House rules," the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported Sunday.
Days after the rules were enacted, a Tennessee judge temporarily blocked the sign ban after the ACLU sued.
In an interview on Democracy Now! late last week, Jones compared Sexton to former President Donald Trump, saying that "it has been a very disturbing special session in which we have our own mini Trump, a man who violates constitutional rights, who tries to shut down dissent, who tried to overturn the election results in my district and Rep. Pearson's district by expelling us and ignoring the voices of our constituents."
"The Tennessee Capitol does not look like the People's House," said Jones. "There are cords, cordoned ropes, put around the rotunda so people cannot protest and exercise their First Amendment right fully. Half of the gallery has been shut down, is only open to lobbyists, and so people can only sit on one side and have to get there hours early."
"You can still bring a gun into committee," Jones added. "But you cannot bring in a small paper sign that says 'stop gun violence'—until the judge granted that temporary restraining order that the speaker is now challenging. And in his continued attempt to silence lawmakers, if we are ruled out of order, we can be silenced indefinitely on the House floor under the new House rules that were instituted by the Republican supermajority."
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Tennessee Judge Blocks Rule Barring Signs From Capitol After GOP Removes Gun Control Advocates
"Democracy depends on people's ability to express their opinions to their elected representatives on issues they care about, and this unreasonable rule stood in the way of people fully participating in the democratic process," said one ACLU official.
Aug 23, 2023
First Amendment defenders on Wednesday applauded a judge's ruling that temporarily blocked Tennessee Capitol rules approved by state House Republicans which earlier this week were used to remove gun control advocates from a subcommittee hearing.
The ruling was handed down by Davidson County Chancellor Anne Martin hours after the ACLU filed a lawsuit in response to the removal of three women—Allison Polidor, Maryam Abolfazli, and Erica Bowton—from a hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Civil Justice on Tuesday. The protesters silently held signs reading, "1 Kid > All the Guns" at the hearing on Tennessee's gun laws five months after a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, in which three children and three staff members were massacred.
The new disciplinary rules adopted by House Republicans on Monday barred members of the public from carrying signs in House galleries and committee meetings.
State Rep. Justin Jones (D-52), who was expelled from the House earlier this year for participating in a gun control protest after the shooting and won back his seat in August, noted that the rules banned signs in committee rooms—but allowed firearms.
"We applaud the court for taking swift action to protect the free speech rights of Tennesseans," Stella Yarbrough, legal director at the ACLU of Tennessee, said in response to Wednesday's ruling. "Democracy depends on people's ability to express their opinions to their elected representatives on issues they care about, and this unreasonable rule stood in the way of people fully participating in the democratic process."
Videos of the three protesters being forcibly removed from the hearing went viral Tuesday evening.
"You will have to drag me out," one of the women told the Republicans who control the committee.
Another member of the public attending the hearing yelled, "You all won't do this for people who bring guns to school," as state troopers removed the protesters.
Shortly after the three women were led out, Subcommittee Chair Lowell Russell (R-21) called on the troopers to remove all members of the public from the hearing room, saying they were being disruptive.
The Tennessean reported that "the crying of multiple Covenant School parents could be heard" among the crowd of Tennessee residents who were kicked out.
Nick Hansen, the father of two Covenant School students, noted on social media that the Tennessee state Constitution guarantees that "the doors of each House and of committees of the whole shall be kept open, unless when the business shall be such as ought to be kept secret."
After expelling the constituents from the hearing room, Republicans on the committee voted in favor of legislation to allow teachers and members of the public to carry guns in schools, provoking an uproar among the crowd assembled outside the hearing room.
"You should all be embarrassed," one women angrily told the lawmakers. "You do not represent us."
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