Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to probe the expulsion of two Democratic lawmakers from the Republican-led Tennessee House.

The letter’s signatories, Schumer and Warnock, as well as Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, called on Garland to “use all available legal authorities” to probe the expulsions of Democratic Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, including “to determine whether any violations of the United States Constitution or federal civil rights laws have occurred.”

The letter was first obtained by The Washington Post.

Republicans voted last week to expel Jones and Pearson, who are both Black, for their role in a gun control protest on the House floor following a mass shooting at a private elementary school in Nashville that left three children and three adults dead. A third Democrat who participated in the demonstration, Gloria Johnson, who is white, survived expulsion by one vote.

The action by Republicans led to widespread outcry from major Democratic party figures, including President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama, and thrusted the ousted lawmakers into the national spotlight.

Jones was reappointed to his seat by the Nashville City Council on Monday, and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Wednesday to reinstate Pearson to the GOP-led legislature.

“Their tragedy shattered hearts across our country and galvanized Americans—particularly young Americans in Tennessee—to peacefully demand their legislators act,” the Democrats wrote of the shooting. “These deeply moving expressions of democratic participation follow America’s long tradition of peaceful, non-violent protest, perfected during the struggles and triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement.”

The lawmakers went on to praise Jones, Johnson and Pearson for their demonstration.

“There are no allegations that these democratically-elected officials engaged in any violent or illegal conduct,” they wrote. “By courageously participating in nonviolent demonstrations, they challenged procedural rules governing decorum and good behavior.”

“We believe the repeated and preventable slaughter of our children should frustrate and disrupt decorum because this horrifying pattern must never be accepted as business as usual,” the Democrats continued. “Moreover, we do not believe that breaking decorum is alone sufficient cause for employing the most draconian of consequences to duly-elected lawmakers.”

They went on to charge that Tennessee’s legislature “has reportedly never previously expelled a member over purely procedural violations,” charging that expulsions have previously “involved serious allegations of ethical or criminal misconduct.”

“In taking this radical action, rather than responding to the intolerable violence inflicted upon a Tennessee community, the Tennessee House of Representatives chose to silence Black members of their own body who were protesting nonviolently, in response to violence,” they added.

The Democrats cited the 1966 Supreme Court case Bond v. Floyd, which involved Georgia’s House of Representatives blocking Julian Bond, a Black man, from joining the legislature for his views opposing the Vietnam War. The high court unanimously ruled that a legislature cannot limit a legislator’s ability to express views on policy.

“Silencing legislators on the basis of their views or their participation in protected speech or protest is antithetical to American democracy and values,” they wrote. “We cannot allow states to cite minor procedural violations as pretextual excuses to remove democratically-elected representatives, especially when these expulsions may have been at least partially on the basis of race.”

“Allowing such behavior sets a dangerous—and undemocratic—precedent,” the Democrats warned.

The Democrats concluded their letter by writing that they “are deeply concerned that without immediate action by the U.S. Department of Justice, antidemocratic actors will only be emboldened, and we will see more troubling and more frequent incidents meant to unravel our democratic fabric.”

“Thank you for your work to protect our democracy,” they added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.