Oct. 3 (UPI) — Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the state and Tennessee House Speaker for “infringing on his rights” to “speak and be heard” during debates about gun reform.
“Today my attorneys filed a federal lawsuit to hold Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton responsible for his unconstitutional and discriminatory actions,” Jones — a Democrat from Nashville — wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“The people of District 52 deserve to have their voices heard without the threat of undemocratic silencing and retaliation,” Jones added.
Sexton has not responded to the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, Jones accuses House Republicans — who hold a supermajority in the chamber — of expelling him last spring and then enacting new rules in August to limit debate.
Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, were both expelled in April after leading gun reform chants on the House floor following a legislative stalemate in the wake of the deadly mass shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School.
While Jones and Pearson were reappointed to their seats and later won re-election, Jones has argued that his expulsion “robbed” him of several months of legislative tenure, as well as committee appointments. He also said it forced him to spend $70,000 for his re-election campaign.
“Despite having been duly — and overwhelmingly — re-elected by the people of the 52nd Legislative District, the Speaker and the House Republican majority have prevented and continue to prevent Rep. Jones from speaking on behalf of his constituents by their continuing to deny Rep. Jones his seat on the Government Operations committee to which he was duly appointed,” the lawsuit states.
Jones, who is Black, said the state also denied him equal protection in “treating him differently than similarly situated white House members for the same conduct.” Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is White and also protested gun violence in the wake of the school shooting, was not expelled.
In August, Sexton declared Jones “out of order” during a special session debate over assigning police to schools. After Jones argued for more mental health professionals instead, Sexton claimed he was speaking “off topic.” The GOP majority voted to bar Jones from speaking for the rest of the session, as Democrats walked out of the chamber in protest.
In the lawsuit, Jones argues that the changes made before that special session to the “Rules of Order of the Tennessee House of Representatives violate the U.S. and Tennessee Constitutions.” He said the new rules gave Sexton the power to call representatives out of order, at his discretion, and allowed state troopers to block the public from the state rotunda.
“What we’re seeing is this misapplication, this abuse of rules under the leadership of Speaker Cameron Sexton,” Jones said in August. “What’s happening is not Democratic. It is authoritarianism. The Capitol is surrounded by troopers. This does not look like a Democratic body anymore.”