April 12 (Reuters) - Local officials will meet in Memphis, Tennessee, on Wednesday to decide whether to return the second of two Democratic state lawmakers who were expelled last week for protesting gun violence on the chamber floor.
In a rare rebuke, Republicans who control the state House of Representatives voted to kick out Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two Black men who had recently joined the legislature, over their rule-breaking protest on the House floor on March 30.
"I believe the expulsion of State Representative Justin Pearson was conducted in a hasty manner without consideration of other corrective action methods," Lowery said in a statement.
Johnson, who unlike Jones and Pearson did not use a megaphone during the protest, narrowly escaped also being expelled.
Tennessee's House Republicans, who have a supermajority, have said this week they will "welcome" back any expelled state lawmakers returned by county-level governments, so long as those members follow the legislature's rules.