Why It Matters
The Tennessee redistricting fight has narrowed significantly following the withdrawal of a Democratic Party lawsuit, leaving two remaining federal cases to determine whether the Republican-drawn congressional map unlawfully eliminated the state’s only majority-minority U.S. House district.
What Happened
The Tennessee Democratic Party voluntarily dismissed its federal redistricting lawsuit this week, filing a notice with the court Tuesday without detailing the reasons for the withdrawal. The suit had challenged a Republican-drawn congressional map that divided majority-Black, majority-Democratic Memphis across three separate U.S. House districts.
The original case included the state Democratic Party, four Democratic congressional candidates, and four individual voters as plaintiffs. Among them was U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, who represented Memphis’s District 9 for 19 years before announcing he would not seek reelection following the map’s redrawing. State Rep. Justin Pearson, who initially launched a congressional campaign against Cohen before pivoting to run in the reconstituted 9th District, was also a plaintiff.
Pearson pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais as the driving factor behind the decision to step back, saying the decision had “gutted key provisions of the Voting Rights Act.” On June 2, the Supreme Court upheld Alabama congressional maps that similarly divided Black majority voters across multiple districts, a ruling widely seen as further narrowing the legal grounds for voting rights challenges of this type.
By the Numbers
- 3 — congressional districts Memphis was split into under the redrawn map
- 19 years — length of Steve Cohen’s tenure representing District 9
- 4 — total legal challenges filed against the map (one dismissed in state court, one voluntarily dismissed this week, two still active federally)
- June 2 — date of the Supreme Court’s Alabama map ruling
What Remains
Two federal lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee remain active. The ACLU filed one; the NAACP and the League of Women Voters jointly filed the other. Both allege racial discrimination in the map’s design and contend that it unlawfully dismantled the state’s only majority-minority congressional district. Cohen has announced his support for both continuing challenges.
A separate NAACP lawsuit filed in state court was dismissed last month, further concentrating the legal effort in federal court.
Zoom Out
Tennessee’s redistricting dispute reflects a broader national pattern of legal battles over congressional maps drawn following the 2020 census. Courts across the South have faced challenges to maps that critics argue dilute Black voting power by fragmenting historically cohesive minority communities. The Supreme Court’s recent rulings have complicated that litigation landscape, raising the threshold for what plaintiffs must demonstrate under the Voting Rights Act.
For more on how Tennessee’s new U.S. House map was constructed, see what data reveals about the criteria used to draw Tennessee’s congressional boundaries.
What’s Next
The two remaining federal lawsuits will proceed in the Middle District of Tennessee. How courts apply the Supreme Court’s recent Voting Rights Act precedents will likely shape the outcome and could set additional benchmarks for redistricting challenges elsewhere in the country.