NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee House panel has rejected a push to remove a judge for expanding absentee voting in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On a voice vote, the House Civil Justice Subcommittee sided with prominent attorneys who said removing Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle would be an unprecedented breach of judicial independence.
In the House, 65 of 73 Republicans supported a proposal to create a House-Senate panel that would recommend whether to remove the judge.
If the panel recommended removal, a two-thirds vote in each chamber would then be needed to make it happen.
