(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Nashville’s Metro Council will hold an emergency meeting Monday to likely reinstate Justin Jones, the Tennessee House representative who was ousted last week for taking part in a gun control rally.
Nashville Vice Mayor Jim Shulman, the council’s president, told ABC News that members quickly scheduled the meeting following Thursday’s vote by the Republican-led statehouse to expel Jones and Justin Pearson for allegedly violating the chamber’s rules of decorum by participating in the March 30 protest.
State Rep. Gloria Johnson, who also took part in the protest that was prompted by the March 27 mass shooting at The Covenant School, was subjected to an expulsion vote but not enough members supported it.
Shulman said the council hearing will decide whether or not to suspend the rules that require four weeks for city leaders to appoint an interim successor and later a special election for Jones’ seat.
If the measure goes forward without two objections, the council will vote to reinstate Jones as interim state representative, the vice mayor said.
“I’m hearing that’s what the majority of the members want to do,” Shulman told ABC News.
The vice mayor noted that if two council members object to the motion of suspending the rules, then the body is forced to wait four weeks before moving forward with the protocol.
Jones, 27, ran for office last year for the open house seat in Tennessee’s 52nd district, which includes Nashville. He had no opponents in the general election.
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