NASHVILLE SENDS JUSTIN JONES BACK TO THE TENNESSEE HOUSE DAYS AFTER GOP LAWMAKERS OUSTED HIM

ourdays after being expelled by Tennessee's Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Democrat Justin Jones marched back to the Capitol on Monday following a unanimous vote by the Nashville Metropolitan Council to reappoint him as

His return representing Nash ville's House District 52 put a excla mation point on a remarkable 100-hour stretch in which Jones and another Black Democrat, Justin Pearson, lost their seats in an extraordinary, emotionally charged legislative session, after calling for gun reform during a protest on the Democrat who had joined them, Rep. Gloria Johnson, narrowly avoided expulsion during Thursday's House session.

Jones returned to the House fellow Democrat, Rep. Antonio Parkinson, introduced him to the session as "our newest member." After the city council decision late in the afternoon, Jones joined demonstrators in a march to the state Capitol.

The crowd gathered at the meeting erupted into cheers after the vote. Those marching with Jones chanted, "Whose house? Our House."

Speaking from the steps of the Capitol after walking the four blocks from City Hall, Jones told the crowd: "Today we are sending a resounding message that democracy will not be killed in the comfort of silence. Today

Stephen we send a clear message to Speaker Cameron Sexton that the people will not allow his crimes against democracy to happen without challenge."

State law allows local legislative bodies to appoint interim House members to fill the seats of expelled lawmakers until an election is held. The 36-0 vote to return Jones to his seat followed a vote to suspend a procedural rule that prevents an individual from being nominated and appointed to the seat in the same meeting.

On Thursday, Jones and Pearson were forced out of the legislature in a two-thirds majority vote cast by their Republican colleagues. Johnson, a White woman, survived the vote and held on to her seat.

Sexton earlier indicated he would not stand in the way of the appointments if the local governing bodies choose to send Jones and Pearson back to the chamber.

"The two governing bodies will make the decision as to who they want to appoint to these seats," a spokesperson for the speaker's office told CNN Monday. "Those two individuals will be seated as representatives as the constitution requires."

Pearson's vacant District 86 seat will be addressed during a special meeting of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners in Memphis on Wednesday afternoon, Commission Chairman Mickell Lowery said.

"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. Pearson joined Jones on the steps of the Capitol after the Nashville Metropolitan Council vote.

"It's never a good idea to give up on the movement led by people that look like this, who are committed to the ideals but not just committed in heart but in body and spirit... they'll show up for the movement," Pearson said. "The movement lives."

Having a voice and a vision in the state House matters, Pearson told supporters.

"You might try and silence it. You might try and expel it, but the people's power will not be stopped," he said. "Because this is what democracy looks like."

'The world is watching Tennessee' Read more at StyleMagazine.com

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND ABORTION PILL MANUFACTURER ASK APPEALS COURT TO FREEZE JUDGE'S ORDER THAT COULD MAKE DRUG UNAVAILABLE AFTER FRIDAY

By Tierney Sneed and Ariane de Vogue, CNN/StyleMagazine.com Newswire

The Justice Department and a manufacturer of medication abortion drugs asked a federal appeals court on Monday to put on hold a judge's ruling that could make the drug unavailable nationwide after Friday. The requests, filed on Monday before the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, are seeking a short-term administrative stay as well as a long-term stay pending appeal on a lower court ruling from US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who ordered the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the drug to be suspended.

An administrative stay would give the appellate court more breathing room to consider whether Kacsmaryk's ruling should be frozen while the litigation plays out. The Justice Department and Danco, a manufacturer of the drug mifepristone that intervened in the case to defend the FDA's approval in 2000, had both already filed notices of appeal.

Kacsmaryk said his Friday night order would not go into effect for seven days to give the Justice Department time to appeal.

The Justice Department is asking for the 5th Circuit to act on its emergency request by noon on Thursday, "to enable the government to seek relief in the Supreme Court if necessary."

The department's lawyers told the appeals court that if Kacsmaryk's ruling were to go into effect, it "would thwart FDA's scientific judgment and severely harm women, particularly those for whom mifepristone is a medical or practical necessity."

"This harm would be felt throughout the country, given that mifepristone has lawful uses in every State," the DOJ filing said. "The order would undermine healthcare systems and the reliance interests of businesses and medical providers. In contrast, plain- tiffs present no evidence that they will be injured at all, much less irreparably harmed, by maintaining the status quo they left unchallenged for years."

Danco similarly told the appeals court that if Kacmsaryk's order wasn't frozen, it "is certain to cause irreparable harm: to women who will lose access to the medication abortion regimen that is the standard of care; to Danco; to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries; and to the separation of powers undergirding judicial and regulatory action."

Kacsmaryk's order in a case brought in Texas by anti-abortion rights activists is seemingly at odds with another federal court ruling handed down less than an hour later in a separate case on the other side of the country.

That second order said that the FDA must maintain the drug's availability in 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, which sued to make abortion pills easier to obtain. In that case, US District Judge Thomas O. Rice said the FDA could not do anything that would reduce the availability of the drug in the 18 jurisdictions that brought the lawsuit.

The Justice Department has not said yet whether it will appeal Rice's order. On Monday, the Justice Department asked Rice to clarify how

FDA should comply with his order if Kacsmaryk's ruling is allowed to go into effect, with a filing that pointed to a "significant tension" between the two rulings.

Mifepristone is the first pill in the two-pill process to terminate a pregnancy. Medication abortion makes up the majority of abortions in the United States.

With its latest 5th Circuit filing, the Justice Department argued that the district court upended the FDA's approval of mifepristone, "depriving patients of access to this safe and effective treatment, based on the court's own misguided assessment of the drug's safety."

"The district court took this extraordinary step despite the fact that plaintiffs did not seek relief for many years after mifepristone's original approval, waited nearly a year after the most recent FDA actions they seek to challenge, and then asked the court to defer any relief until after a final resolution of the case," the DOJ wrote.

The Justice Department described Kacsmaryk's order as "extraordinary and unprecedented."

Meanwhile, Danco characterized the Friday ruling as "an unprecedented judicial assault on a careful regulatory process that has served the public for decades." For more information, visit StyleMagazine.com.