Chuck Darwin<p>The Tennessee Expulsion Is a Glimpse of the Future </p><p>Clearly, expelling two members of the Tennessee legislature was an explosive move and temporarily leaves their constituents no representation, at least until a special election is held.</p><p>In fact, the state party is already raising money for the members to win back their seats.</p><p>Meanwhile, there’s another story playing out 600 miles to the north that highlights another, potentially even more consequential use of hard-ball legislative power.</p><p>While liberals were celebrating the election Tuesday of a <a href="https://c.im/tags/Wisconsin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Wisconsin</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Supreme" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Supreme</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Court" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Court</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/justice" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>justice</span></a> who will tip the court to the left, voters in the state’s 8th senatorial district were sending <a href="https://c.im/tags/Republican" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Republican</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Dan" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Dan</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Knodl" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Knodl</span></a> to Madison. </p><p>That gives the GOP a Senate <a href="https://c.im/tags/supermajority" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>supermajority</span></a> and with it, the power to remove key officials through <a href="https://c.im/tags/impeachment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>impeachment</span></a> — including judges. </p><p>In late March, Knodl said he would “<a href="https://c.im/tags/certainly" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>certainly</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/consider" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>consider</span></a>” impeaching <a href="https://c.im/tags/Janet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Janet</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Protasiewicz" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Protasiewicz</span></a>, the new state Supreme Court justice, though he was talking about her role as a county judge.</p><p>Would Wisconsin Republicans impeach a justice simply because they don’t like the court’s rulings? Well, there is nothing hypothetical about how the state’s GOP legislature has used its power against other branches of government</p><p><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/04/06/tennessee-expulsion-future-democrats-00090911" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">politico.com/news/magazine/202</span><span class="invisible">3/04/06/tennessee-expulsion-future-democrats-00090911</span></a></p>