Three-judge panel to rule on NAACP challenge of redrawn Tennessee district map

A panel of three Tennessee judges will soon decide whether the state’s General Assembly overstepped its authority when members repealed a law preventing mid-decade redistricting and changed rules for the 2026 congressional election during a special legislative session.

The NAACP Tennessee State Conference, NAACP Tennessee President Gloria Sweet-Love and others filed a lawsuit to halt the use of the state’s new congressional map on May 7, less than three hours after Gov. Bill Lee signed the map into law. Tennessee’s congressional districts were redrawn to eliminate the state’s only majority-Black, majority-Democrat voting district in Memphis.

During a hearing on Thursday, NAACP attorney Anthony Ashton argued that legislators ran afoul of Tennessee’s constitution by acting outside of Lee’s specifically stated purpose for the special session: to make statutory changes necessary to change the composition of Tennessee’s congressional districts and facilitate the 2026 congressional election.

In repealing a decades-old law that prohibits mid-decade redistricting, extending the qualification timeline and allowing new candidates to enter the race, waiving the residency requirement for candidates and waiving the requirement to notify voters of district changes via mail, legislators “went far beyond what was necessary,” Ashton said.


https://tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/22/three-judge-panel-to-rule-on-naacp-challenge-of-redrawn-tennessee-district-map/