NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It is incredibly rare for Tennessee lawmakers to kick out an elected member of the General Assembly.
In fact, it has only happened three times since the Civil War.
The most recent time the House kicked out a sitting member was in 2016 when they removed Rep. Jeremy Durham, R-Franklin.
His expulsion followed allegations of sexual misconduct and a 40-page Attorney General report that detailed claims from interns and politicians, who said Durham harassed them. One report claimed he had sex with an intern in his office which Durham denied. Despite fighting the charges, 70 votes sealed his fate and Durham was expelled.
On the Senate side, Sen. Katrina Robinson, D-Memphis, was expelled last year after she was convicted on federal fraud charges.
You have to go back to 1980 to find another expulsion.
Representative Robert Fisher, R-Elizabethton, was convicted of accepting a bribe. Once again, after he was convicted in court, lawmakers voted to expel him. But there are other well-known lawmakers who got in trouble but who never got kicked out.
Republican Glen Casada lost his speakership after a NewsChannel 5 investigation discovered racist text messages sent by Casada's chief of staff, Cade Cothren — one using the N-word, another saying "Black people are idiots." One of the inappropriate texts was sent to Casada himself. The Speaker initially claimed the texts were not real, but our investigation uncovered other text messages including vulgar ones about women sent between the two.
The Franklin Republican kept his seat and was even re-elected. Then last year he was arrested on federal bribery charges. That case is still pending. Casada decided not to seek re-election and was never brought up on an expulsion vote.
You have to go back to 1866 to find other state lawmakers who were expelled.
That's when six lawmakers were removed after they tried to prevent Tennessee from ratifying the 14th Amendment which gave citizenship to former slaves.
It's also worth noting that then-state Senator Marsha Blackburn called for protesters to descend on the State Capitol in 2001 during the income tax vote. Those protests got out of hand but Blackburn did not face any consequences.
