@c_leece @QasimRashid the local city councils appoint an interim rep, and in Justin Jones' case the Nashville city council has signaled that they'll just appoint him right back as the interim (they can do that) and he'll serve as normal until a special election (which he can also run in). The whole thing is ridiculous. Super hard to see what the TNGOP's plan was here.

Another rep, Justin Pearson from Memphis, also got expelled and it's less clear if he'll be reappointed.

@c_leece: In all the parliamentary systems that I know about explicitly, when a legislator is expelled, the seat becomes vacant and the standard replacement mechanism is triggered. I would hope that in US states, this would mean a special election for the vacant seats.

But this is Tennessee, so they might have some nastiness in their law about this.

@QasimRashid

@dsmdexter: It's an abuse in the state's legislature. It's probably outside the jurisdiction of federal oversight.

There's a theoretical possibility of invoking the civil rights oversight jurisdiction, but I don't think it has ever been tried so far in this kind of context, and the current SCOTUS would not be particularly likely to approve of it.

@QasimRashid

@katerberg: Looks like Tennessee constitution requires a 2/3 supermajority to expel a member.

Unfortunately, the Republicans have a 3/4 supermajority there right now, and not enough of the Republicans dare to stand up against the creeping fascism.

@QasimRashid @seldo