MEMPHIS, Tenn. — State Rep. Justin J. Pearson has taken Memphis and City Council Chairwoman Jana Swearengen-Washington to federal court, saying a ban that locked him and other speakers out of upcoming council sessions crosses First Amendment lines.
The case landed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Pearson and several other plaintiffs argue the council’s public-comment crackdown stretches past what state law and the Constitution allow when people are shut out of later meetings, not just cut off mid-speech.
Tension boiled over at the Oct. 6 council meeting, which drew a crowd of more than 100. After members postponed action on a proposed pause for new data-center approvals, the session broke up early amid loud protests inside the chamber and in the lobby. Officers from the Memphis Police Department responded; nobody was taken into custody.
A letter signed by Swearengen-Washington and other council officials later notified Pearson, family members and community organizers that they could not attend the next council gatherings. City Attorney Allan Wade defended the move, saying the chair alone can bar people and that the bans fit the council’s rules of procedure.
Pearson, who is seeking the 9th Congressional District seat being left by U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, announced the lawsuit at a news conference and said the bans clash with free-speech protections. His November opponent is Republican state Sen. Brent Taylor.
Council decorum rules tell speakers to avoid personal, impertinent, slanderous or profane remarks and allow someone to be stopped from further comment in that same meeting. The lawsuit says those rules never map out power to lock the public out of future meetings.
Memphis operates under a strong-mayor form of city government with Mayor Paul Young and a 13-member City Council. Early coverage of the filing said Swearengen-Washington had not yet answered questions about the ban letters.
Section: More Memphis TN politics news
