NASHVILLE — The Tennessee home adopted rules Thursday, lowering bill filing restrictions and setting harsher penalties than deemed bans to break down the expulsion of lawmakers and citizen members.

The bill’s limit will be 12 for rank and file members, and committee chairs will receive five additional bills, and subcommittee chairs will be able to file two additional bills. Democrats at Super Minority are opposed to the move, saying their voices will be even more silent as Republicans chair them all and more bills can be introduced.

The Republican-controlled House adopted strict rules in 2024 after three members led an anti-gun rally on the floor after three members killed six people in the 2023 Covenant School shooting.

The new rules take them a step further.

Representatives who are called twice in order on the same day can have two minutes of talk. If they are called again in turn from the speaker, the members can be silent, and more confusion can lead to removal from the chamber over two days.

Members who net such punishment will be allowed to go to the meeting rooms in Cordell Hullville, where they can vote remotely. The ban could last three-day legislative day.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton said Thursday he doesn’t think the removal of members to another area would fall into constitutional issues. He said other states, such as Montana, and legislatures, are using comparable measures to allow lawmakers to vote remotely.

Sexton said the House held a hearing two years ago for officials.

“I think it strengthens what we’re doing and has a variety of options for bad behavior,” Sexton said.

Jones filed a lawsuit against Sexton and his House staff, claiming that his constitutional rights were violated using House rules. On this week’s Rules Committee, Jones, a Nashville Democrat, repeatedly introduced Sexton as “authoritarian,” but he cannot persuade a Republican-controlled committee to pass his rule proposal. It was.

Similarly, the house can eliminate the public who will disrupt sessions from the gallery or the capitol lobby for two days. People who continue to show “bad” behavior will be banned for the rest of the session that lasts for two years.