The Poetic License of Justin Jones

How the Tennessee GA’s most insufferable gadfly unwittingly threw a close collaborator under the bus.

For those who follow politics, it comes as little surprise that most legislators don’t understand the law. However, state representative Justin Jones has turned naked ignorance into a most lucrative occupation. On May 3rd, Jones underwent a grueling three-hour meeting to successfully defend a challenge from his Republican opponent, Laura Nelson, that 10 signatures on his petition to run for reelection were illegitimate. Likely too preoccupied by appearing on Max reality TV shows about drag queens and pretending to be interested in agriculture, Jones only bothered to collect 26 signatures, one over the minimum of 25 required by state law, when candidates routinely seek out hundreds.  

As NewsChannel 5’s “Footman” Phil Williams reported in April, a sea change is occurring in which members of Jones’s own party have begun to distance themselves from his toxic buffoonery for the sake of their own reputations. “In public, they may express mild disagreement with his incendiary approach,” writes Williams. “In private, they accuse him of sowing division even among people who agree with him on core issues. Many Democrats are barely on speaking terms with Jones.” But Jones’s tendency to pose a significant threat to his political allies while embarrassing himself has been an unwitting hallmark of his schtick since the halcyon days of his national ascendency. 

In his 2022 memoir, The People’s Plaza: Sixty-Two Days of Nonviolent Resistance (published by Vanderbilt University Press), Jones heaps much praise on his dubiously funded movement’s “legal advisor,” Niti Sharan: “She was a lawyer in Florida who had recently returned home to Tennessee and was documenting rights violations, helping us with bail support, and getting in touch with other attorneys who were members of the Tennessee Bar Association for assistance.” 

As Jones indicates, Sharan was fully engaged in her capacity as an attorney during the protests. Her occupation became all the more important after the latest in a long line of Jones’s arrests, when she was one of the first people he tried to contact: “I kept calling, but could not get an answer. The phone went straight to voicemail. This was unusual. Niti and others volunteering to coordinate legal support were usually really good about answering calls from inside the jail.” Even after Sharan was arrested and released as a ringleader of the protests, she continued to put her legal training to use during subsequent altercations. “Niti circled in a car ready to provide jail support,” Jones writes in a chapter that contains a picture of the two on the plaza before several anecdotes about how she handled the logistics of his bail and release. 

The only problem is that, according to the member directories of both the Tennessee Bar Association and the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, Sharan is not licensed to practice law in the state. Even more curiously, her page on The Florida Bar’s website lists a Nashville address. 

The Tennessee Court’s statute related to practicing law without a license clearly states, “No person shall engage in the practice of law or do law business, or both, as defined in § 23- 3-101, unless the person has been duly licensed and while the person's license is in full force and effect.” It defines law business as, among other actions, “The advising or counseling for valuable consideration of any person as to any secular law,” which, as Jones admits in his memoir, Sharan routinely did in the summer of 2020. 

The Pamphleteer spoke with three attorneys to confirm that Sharan’s actions as Jones describes them violate the statute. Though they wished to remain anonymous, all independently confirmed such was the case. Additionally, we reached out to Rep. Jones for clarification about his account of events. We also contacted Sharan via phone and her Avvo.com page (which lists her office’s location as Miami Gardens, FL) multiple times to determine in which states she is licensed to practice. Neither Jones nor Sharan could be reached for comment.

🔵 BlueOval City Blues Yesterday, Ford Motor Company announced another delay in the production of its electric trucks at BlueOval City in Stanton, Tennessee,, pushing back the start date to 2027. Originally, production was set to begin in 2025, then delayed to 2026, with the latest postponement attributed to the adoption of lower-cost battery technology aimed at reducing costs and boosting profitability for Ford's electric vehicles. Despite these adjustments, skepticism exists regarding the true reasons behind the delays, with some suggesting that slowing sales of the F-150 Lightning, Ford's electric truck, might be a contributing factor. 

The BlueOval City project was anticipated to bring significant economic benefits to the region, including approximately 6,000 jobs. This project was backed by substantial state funding, with around $1 billion from Tennessee's "Rainy Day Fund" allocated in 2021, reflecting the state's commitment to supporting automotive innovation and job creation. 

Despite the setbacks, local and state leaders remain optimistic. Haywood County Mayor David Livingston has reiterated his belief that the project is "too big to fail," emphasizing the ongoing construction and the planned commencement of battery production as signs of continued investment. Governor Lee's office also expressed confidence in the project, highlighting Ford's investment as a testament to Tennessee's role in the future of automotive manufacturing. This series of delays, however, underscores the challenges Ford faces in the rapidly evolving EV market, where profitability and consumer demand are critical factors influencing production timelines.

🏳️‍🌈 The Great Queering “Who is going to tell her that you can’t ‘queer’ nuclear weapons?” Yesterday, Congressman Andy Ogles took to X to comment on a Fox report concerning a new hire in Biden’s Nuclear Security Administration, Sneha Nair.

Nair, who was previously employed by Stimson, penned an article for the Bulletin expounding on the idea that nuclear weapons could serve a queer politics. "Queer theory helps to shift the perception of nuclear weapons as instruments for security by telling the hidden stories of displacement, illness, and trauma caused by their production and testing," she wrote last year. According to Fox, the recently appointed assistant also advocates for a DEI initiative aimed at deterring “threats to nuclear facilities” and eradicating “purported ‘White supremacy’ in the nuclear field.” 

“This is yet another demonstration of the Biden-Harris Administration’s dedication to radical DEI over everything, including the security of our nation,” concluded Ogles.

🚌 Bus Backers Unite “Mayor O'Connell Needs a Posse,” reads the subject line of a How Nashville Moves recruitment email inviting Nashvillians to Saturday’s "Let's Get Moving" Volunteer Rally. Between 1 and 3 p.m., attendees can meet the mayor at the Eastside Bowl to enjoy free drinks and snacks while learning how to help his transit referendum “win” in November.

By all accounts, the mayor and his support network plan to make the most of the remaining ten weeks before the vote. A feverish amount of transit presentations have been calendared across the county from now until November, and the PR campaign is sure to be puffed with media coverage. Just this morning, the Scene staff released a series of transit articles provoking their readers with the title, “Your Move, Nashville.” Read them here.

DEVELOPMENT

No development news today.

✹ REVIEW: BORDERLANDS (2024)

After dwelling on the fringes of Hollywood’s illegitimate genres for nearly two decades, Eli Roth was ready to put his stamp on the summer blockbuster with Borderlands, his adaptation of the 2009 first-person shooter. Armed with massive IP, a fervent fanbase, and a top-notch cast including Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black, Borderlands should have been one of the summer’s biggest hits. Instead, the $120-million franchise starter has a 10% on Rotten Tomatoes and just crossed $20 million at the box office two weeks after its release. 

Amid a sea of hackneyed video game puns that say more about the irrevocably eroding quality of film criticism than the movie, one can discern that Borderlands is–to use its notices’ most frequent adjective–a “mess.” But, those of us who didn’t have the good fortune to experience 1968 firsthand just lived through the messiest summer on record. From presidential cues to Trump assassination attempts, it’s the fodder for a true artist’s magnum opus–one that no studio in a faltering Hollywood would dare produce. Thus, what’s the true artist to do, but make that video game adaptation?

As the DNC’s insistent optimism indicates, Americans are no longer quite buying the gloss. They want to grapple with the mess we’re in. And, as Roth proved with Thanksgiving and Hostel before it, he is Hollywood’s most astute social critic. 

In their search for a mystical vault on a last stand against a corrupt multi-planetary corporation, Blanchett’s no-bullshit bounty hunter, Hart’s rogue soldier, Black’s robot sidekick, Jamie Lee Curtis’s eccentric scientist, and Barbie breakout Ariana Greenblatt’s pyromaniac tween, Tiny Tina, travel the well-worn path of the franchise blockbusters that continue to define American moviegoing. However, Roth is one of the few filmmakers brave enough to make a movie about just how little mileage that formula has left. 

Rather than rest on the laurels of lore and insincere fan appeasement, Borderlands is a blockbuster unafraid to parse out the moral quandaries one encounters on the road to self-enrichment. It’s a film about duty in a sci-fi world where all signs point to an end made seemingly inevitable by an overreliance on utopia. In its postmodern portrait of a junkyard planet, it yearns for the emotional resonance that snarky pastiche and social engineering have sapped from our cultural institutions. Nothing has better captured the mess of America as it is now

Borderlands is now playing in theaters.

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.

TONIGHT

🎸 Maggie Antone @ The Basement, 7p, $15, Info
+ "Rhinestoned" Album Release Show

🥁 The Sofia Goodman Group & The Yeli Ensemble @ The Blue Room, 7p, $19.41, Info

🎺 LIVE JAZZ: Parker James, Paul DeFiglia, & Anson Hohne @ Vinyl Tap, 7p, No Cover, Info

🪕 Tim Carter & Damn the Banjos @ Station Inn, 9p, $20, Info

🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info

🎸 Kelly’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info

🎸 Open Mic @ Fox & Locke, 6:30p, Free, Info
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