Tennessee House of Representatives
| Tennessee House of Representatives | |
|---|---|
| Tennessee General Assembly | |
 |
|
| Type | |
| Type | |
|
Term limits
|
None |
| History | |
|
New session started
|
January 13, 2015 |
| Leadership | |
|
Speaker of the House
|
|
|
Speaker pro Tempore
|
|
|
Majority Leader
|
|
|
Minority Leader
|
|
| Structure | |
| Seats | 99 |
 |
|
|
Political groups
|
Governing party
Opposition party
|
|
Length of term
|
2 years |
| Authority | Article III, Tennessee Constitution |
| Salary | $19,009/year per diem employee benefits travel reimbursement |
| Elections | |
|
Last election
|
November 4, 2014 (99 seats) |
|
Next election
|
November 1, 2016 (99 seats) |
| Redistricting | Legislative Control |
| Meeting place | |
 |
|
| House of Representatives Chamber Tennessee State Capitol Nashville, Tennessee |
|
| Website | |
| Tennessee House of Representatives | |
Governing party
Opposition party
The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.
According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consist of 99 members elected for two-year terms. In every even-numbered year, elections for state representative are conducted simultaneously with the elections for U.S. Representative and other offices; the primary election being held on the first Thursday in August. Seats which become vacant through death or resignation are filled by the county commission (or metropolitan county council) of the home county of the member vacating the seat; if more than a year remains in the term a special election is held for the balance of the term.
Members are elected from single-member districts. The districts are traditionally numbered consecutively from east to west and north to south across the state; however, in recent redistricting this convention has not always been strictly adhered to, despite a constitutional provision requiring districts to be numbered consecutively.
Districts are required to be reapportioned every ten years following the federal census in order to be of substantially equal population. However, from 1902 until 1962, the General Assembly ignored this provision. It was estimated that by that point that some districts in the Memphis area had approximately ten times the population of some in rural areas. In 1962 this issue was taken to court. Despite U.S. courts having traditionally declined to rule on such issues, the US Supreme Court opted to hear this case and ruled that the legislature had to comply with the state constitution, as its failure to do so was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (see Baker v. Carr). Subsequent litigation has further refined the rules regarding this; in the late 1990s a majority-black district in rural West Tennessee was required to be created.
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Wikipedia