Tennessee groups file suit challenging congressional, state senate maps

Several Tennessee groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s congressional and state redistricting maps that went into effect in 2022.

The complaint states the maps are unconstitutional racial gerrymanders that violate the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by intentionally diluting the votes of Black voters and voters of other colors by dividing Nashville and Davidson County into three congressional districts.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Alabama’s new Congressional district map diminished the impact of Black voters, which violates the Voting Rights Act, specifically Article 2, which prohibits voting procedures that discriminate based on race.

The Tennessee lawsuit was filed by the League of Women Voters of Tennessee, Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP, the African American Clergy Collective of Tennessee, the Equity Alliance, the Memphis A. Philip Randolph Institute and individual voters Judy Cummings, Brenda Gilmore, Ophelia Doe, Freda Player and Ruby Powell-Dennis.

“Tennessee’s redistricting plan greatly harms African-American voters,” said Gloria Sweet-Love, President of the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP. “The plan uses a perverse approach to gerrymandering, seemingly motivated by race, that undermines the equal protection of African-Americans and dilutes the African-American vote. There is no constitutional justification for supporting the state legislature’s senate and congressional redistricting plan. Allowing these plans to survive will establish a dangerous precedent.”

Nashville formerly all fell within the 5th Congressional District for the U.S. House, with U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville. The new maps have three congressional districts touching Nashville with three different Republican representatives, including Andy Ogles, John Rose and Mark Green.

The lawsuit also challenges the state senate map in Shelby County, saying Black voters in District 31 no longer have the opportunity to select their candidate of choice.

“When redistricting lines are intentionally manipulated to silence the voice of the people — especially Black voters who have long faced efforts to limit their influence in the political process — those responsible must be called out and held accountable,” said said Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “These maps drawn by the Tennessee legislature represent nothing less than an effort to dilute the voting power of Black voters and other voters of color.

"Indefensibly, the maps splintered historic Black communities in Nashville that had been contained in a single congressional district for decades. It also sliced up the increasingly diverse community of Cordova in the Memphis area, just as voters of color were on the cusp of being able to elect their state senator of choice."