In the wake of the Nashville mass shooting, critics say the decision on Thursday from Tennessee Republicans to expel two Democrats from the state House of Representatives for joining in a gun control protest on capitol grounds is a "completely unprecedented" abuse of power in the state and country at large.
Carrie Russell, a lecturer in political science and expert on Southern politics at Nashville's Vanderbilt University, told The Independent the votes were an "exercise of power solely for power's sake" with a ruthlessness akin to "a pack of dogs refusing to stop biting." She noted that in the rare instances anyone is removed from office in Tennessee or any other state, it's usually after a legislator has been convicted of a serious crime.
"No laws – local, state or federal – were broken here," she said of the protest last Thursday at the heart of the expulsion, where three Democratic lawmakers – Reps Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson, and Justin Pearson – spoke from the House floor and joined in chants with protesters who had entered the capitol building.
"They were well within their constitutional rights to speak out during the House recess, per the state and federal constitution."
