A group of Tennessee voters, including former state Sen. Brenda Gilmore, have filed a lawsuit over Tennessee’s newly drawn congressional maps, alleging the redistricting effort in early 2022 intentionally discriminates against Black voters and dilutes the voting power of communities of color.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Nashville, points to the Republican supermajority’s effort to break up Davidson County into three congressional districts and the splitting of state Senate District 31 in Shelby County.
The complaint alleges Tennessee’s new maps amount to unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.
“Tennessee’s redistricting plan greatly harms African-American voters,” Gloria Sweet-Love, president of the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP, said in a statement. “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.”
The League of Women Voters of Tennessee, Equity Alliance, African American Clergy Collective of Tennessee and Memphis A. Philip Randolph Institute are among the plaintiffs who have joined the lawsuit against the state.
Davidson County had long been in a single, solid Democratic congressional district. The county is how split into three GOP-dominant districts. U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Columbia, won the 5th Congressional District seat in November, flipping the district and giving Republicans an 8-1 edge in the state’s congressional delegation.
The claims made in the lawsuit echo those made in another lawsuit filed in Davidson County court in February that went to trial earlier this year but not has yet been ruled on. The plaintiffs in that case, three private citizens, called the General Assembly’s state House and Senate maps gerrymandered and “facially unconstitutional.”
The plaintiffs accused Republicans of dividing an excessive number of cities and counties when redrawing state House maps and failing to follow a provision in the Tennessee Constitution requiring that senatorial districts in counties with several districts be numbered consecutively. The districts in question are Davidson County’s four state Senate districts, which are numbered 17, 19, 20 and 21.
The case went before a three-judge panel in April.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanMealins. Reach Melissa Brown at mabrown@tennessean.com.