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Pearson, who sang \"Power to the People\" and quoted from the Bible during his opening statement, called the resolution to remove him an \"injustice against the First Amendment.\"

\"Speaking up on behalf of the last, the lost, the least, those who've been left out, those who've been ignored, those who've been silenced but refuse to be silent anymore, that does not deserve expulsion from this House,\" he said before he was expelled from the chamber Thursday evening.

Rep. Justin Pearson, who is facing expulsion over gun protest, responds after legislator calls Pearson’s actions a “temper tantrum”: “Is elevating our voices for justice or change a temper tantrum?” https://t.co/z9fp9KNBdt pic.twitter.com/Aw516o2YXB

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 6, 2023

During her hearing, Johnson, the sole lawmaker to survive the expulsion resolutions, denied allegations that she \"shouted\" from the well during the demonstration last week. But she maintained that she joined the protest, breaching House decorum, in a needed effort to stir \"good trouble.\"

\"My friends in school all called me 'Little Miss Law and Order' because I'm a rule-follower, and I know that rules sometimes have to be broken and sometimes you have to get in good trouble,\" she said.

\"I may have broken a rule, but the words in this document are false and I did what I was compelled to do based on speaking for the voters in my district who were begging me to bring this issue forward,\" she later added, gesturing at HR64, which would have expelled her from the legislative body.

Following the votes, Republican Speaker Cameron Sexton, who previously accused the trio of attempting to incite an insurrection, said he personally voted for all three Democratic members to be expelled.

\"I think what you heard on the House floor today is that those members took away the voice of this chamber for 45 minutes when they were on the House floor, leading the protest to those and disrupting the business that we were doing,\" he said in an interview with NewsNation. \"What I will say is there are consequences for action.\"

The three Republican lawmakers who introduced the expulsion resolutions, Hulsey, Bulso and Farmer, did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.

\"What is my crime, sir?\"

Rep. Gloria Johnson, Tennessee lawmaker facing expulsion over gun protest, addresses state House: \"I fought for my constituents…I did it for the kids in my district, for the kids in the state, for the kids in this community.\" https://t.co/mqM5ngspHS pic.twitter.com/o1GSB7li2G

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 6, 2023

Earlier in the Thursday session, the legislature passed HB322, a bill that requires schools to implement a number of safety plans and security systems, including requiring locked doors and active shooter training for school security guards, over the objections of the three members who faced expulsion.

\"This bill is not about school safety,\" Jones said, adding the move to \"make our schools militarized zones\" is borne out of refusal \"to address the real issue, which is easy access to military grade weapons.\"

Johnson, a former teacher, decried the possibility of \"gun battles at our schoolhouse door,\" while Pearson argued that \"the root cause that each of us have to address is this gun violence epidemic.\"

\"We don't need a solution that says if you don't lock a door or get someone with a gun, we need a solution that says people shouldn't be going to schools and to houses and to neighborhoods with weapons of war,\" Pearson added.

\"PHOTO:
Cheney Orr/Reuters
PHOTO: Protesters gather as Republicans who control the Tennessee House of Representatives prepare to vote on whether to expel three Democratic members for their role in a gun control demonstration, in Nashville, Tenn., April 6, 2023.
>
\"PHOTO:
Cheney Orr/Reuters
PHOTO: Rep. Justin Jones speaks at the statehouse, as Republicans who control the Tennessee House of Representatives prepare to vote on whether to expel three Democratic members, in Nashville, Tenn., April 6, 2023.
>
@abcnews Three Democratic Tennessee lawmakers are facing expulsion resolutions after Republicans said their gun control protest violated the chamber's rules of decorum — an extraordinarily rare rebuke from state lawmakers following the Nashville school shooting. The vote for the resolutions is expected to take place on Thursday. #news #tennessee #guncontrol ♬ original sound - ABC News
\"PHOTO:
George Walker IV/USA Today Network via Reuters
PHOTO: Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones, Rep. Justin Pearson and Rep. Gloria Johnson, call on their colleagues to pass gun control legislation from the well of the House Chambers at the State Capitol, March 30, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn.
>

President Joe Biden said in a statement that the move to oust the lawmakers was \"shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent,\" arguing Republicans in Tennessee were focused on punishing lawmakers who \"stood in solidarity with students and families and helped lift their voices\" rather than pushing for gun control reforms.

\"This nation was built on peaceful protest. No elected official should lose their job simply for raising their voice – especially when they’re doing it on behalf of our children,\" said former President Barack Obama on Twitter Thursday night. \"What happened in Tennessee is the latest example of a broader erosion of civility and democratic norms. Silencing those who disagree with us is a sign of weakness, not strength, and it won’t lead to progress.\"

Since the Civil War, the Tennessee state House has voted only twice to expel a member.

But the effort to expel the three Tennessee lawmakers is one of several recent moves by state legislatures to penalize lawmakers of underrepresented backgrounds taking a stand on progressive causes.

For example, Oklahoma Republicans removed the state’s only nonbinary legislator from House committees after the lawmaker provided refuge to a transgender rights activist.

\"PHOTO:
Cheney Orr/Reuters
PHOTO: Protesters gather as Republicans who control the Tennessee House of Representatives prepare to vote on whether to expel three Democratic members in Nashville, Tenn., April 6, 2023.
>

As of Thursday, the trio of Democratic lawmakers said they have already lost ID access to the state Capitol and been stripped of any committee assignments.

But Pearson and Jones, flanked by their fellow Democratic lawmakers as they heard the results of their expulsion votes, said they remain undeterred in fighting for their constituents.

\"We're gonna keep fighting for people in Nashville and Memphis, across the state of Tennessee and across the United States of America who want justice. We deserve it. This is our birthright. Our inheritance is not just some pieces of paper and constitutions and rules,\" Pearson said in a hallway interview following his expulsion. \"It is the advocacy and the ability to protest for what is right and to create laws and to advocate for laws that make justice more possible.\"

Jones addressed his Republican colleagues directly during his hearing.

\"My prayer to you, is that even if you expel me that you still act to address the crisis of mass shootings because if I'm expelled from here, I'll be back out there with the people, every week, demanding that you act,\" he said.

ABC News' Nakylah Carter contributed to this report.

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