WASHINGTON, May 13 - The NAACP said on Wednesday it has lodged a federal lawsuit challenging Tennessee's recently approved congressional map, alleging that the new plan intentionally discriminates against Black voters.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the complaint contends that lawmakers deliberately redrew Congressional District 9 - a district that has been anchored in Memphis for more than 50 years - to "crack" the majority-Black district across several districts. The NAACP said this splitting was pursued with the intent of eliminating Black voting power and denying Black voters a meaningful opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.
The suit names Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett and the state Election Commission as defendants. Both offices had no immediate comment, according to the filing. The NAACP asserts that the Tennessee redistricting plan violates the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by intentionally discriminating on the basis of race.
The legal challenge follows the approval of the new congressional map by Tennessee Republicans last week. The filing also comes as several Southern states move to act on a U.S. Supreme Court decision from late April that the NAACP described as having severely weakened the protections afforded by the landmark Voting Rights Act.
The NAACP noted that Republican-led states nationally are testing new limits of minority-vote protections in the wake of the Supreme Court decision issued on April 29. Civil rights organizations have brought multiple lawsuits targeting the redrawing of districts that include significant populations of communities of color.
The NAACP's action is part of a broader, partisan national fight over redistricting. Republican efforts to reshape maps intensified after a national campaign last year led by Republican President Donald Trump, which the NAACP and others say has turned into a mid-decade redistricting battle between Democrats and Republicans ahead of this years midterm elections. The Republican Party is aiming to retain its current narrow majorities in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate.
Context and implications
- The lawsuit challenges the specific redrawing of a Memphis-anchored district and asserts an intent to dilute Black voting power.
- The case names statewide election officials as defendants and invokes the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
- The filing is part of a wave of litigation by civil rights groups responding to redistricting moves after a recent Supreme Court decision affecting Voting Rights Act protections.