The Use of Procedural Rules to Silence Minority Party Dissent in the Tennessee State Legislature and Its Racially Discriminatory Roots

Authors

Rosie Fatt

Abstract

The expulsion of two young Black legislators, Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, from the Tennessee General Assembly in April 2023 was not an aberration. This Note argues that the expulsions follow a historical pattern of systematic marginalization of Black representative power in the South. This Note connects the history of minority exclusion in state legislatures, beginning with Black legislators barred from taking their elected seats in the Georgia House, through to the present day. Specifically, it focuses on the use of procedural rules, particularly expulsions, as tools to limit the speech and representative power of Black legislators. It discusses the post-Civil Rights realignment of political parties in the South and the rise of Republican partisanship the Tennessee legislature. The Note further examines how the ascent of Republican supermajorities in Tennessee has enabled the use of hyper-partisanship to silence political adversaries. The Note argues that the expulsions occurred because of the structural conditions of the assembly, an institution built and reinforced to keep out Black voices, where legislators acted within a social network of individual motivations and biases reinforced by hyper-partisan legislative leadership. Finally, the Note emphasizes the necessity of democratic engagement and neutral legislative oversight to foster a pluralistic democracy and prevent procedural tools from becoming weapons to silence minority-party legislators.

Recommended Citation

Rosie Fatt, The Use of Procedural Rules to Silence Minority Party Dissent in the Tennessee State Legislature and Its Racially Discriminatory Roots, 32 J. L. & Pol'y 77 (2024).
Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/jlp/vol32/iss2/3