Congressman Cohen Applauds Reinstatement of State Representative Justin Pearson

MEMPHIS – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), who served in the state legislature for 24 years before being elected to Congress in 2006, today attended the Shelby County Commission Special Meeting called to reinstate State Representative Justin J. Pearson, and made the following statement:

“I am pleased to see the swift reversal of the questionably legal and immoral vote to remove an upstanding and principled legislator from his state House seat. Gun violence, and real solutions to ending it, will be discussed in the Tennessee General Assembly, and across the nation, because they must be. The unjustified removal of Justin Pearson and Justin Jones advanced the cause of gun control and hampered Republican efforts to suppress it. I hope their temporary removal will galvanize all of us who know sensible solutions are possible and necessary. I agree with Justin’s words this afternoon: ‘you can’t expel hope.’ ”

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