A redrawn Tennessee congressional map, projected to give Republicans control of all nine House seats in the state, will remain in place for the Aug. 6 primary election. The decision came Thursday when a three-judge panel denied a request for a preliminary injunction sought by a group of Black voters and civil rights organizations.
The plaintiffs argued the new map intentionally diluted the voting power of Black residents by splitting Memphis and Shelby County into three congressional districts, thereby dismantling the state's only majority-Black congressional district. The lawsuit was filed following Tennessee lawmakers' redrawing of the state's congressional map in May, after the Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which established a higher bar for challenging redistricting plans on racial discrimination grounds.
Republican lawmakers stated the objective of the map redraw was to create a map that favored Republicans in all nine congressional districts and to help preserve the GOP's majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. The judges, consisting of two Trump appointees and one Obama appointee, concluded that evidence in the case pointed to partisan politics as the primary motivation for the redistricting, not race.
"At bottom, Plaintiffs won't succeed on their vote-dilution claim because they haven't presented meaningful evidence that race — not politics — motivated Tennessee's May 2026 map," the judges wrote in their decision. They contrasted the evidence presented in this case with the Supreme Court's 2017 ruling in Cooper v. Harris, which found direct evidence of race influencing the redistricting process. The panel stated that the plaintiffs' evidence in the Tennessee case was "a far cry from the 'smoking gun' direct evidence in Cooper v. Harris."
The plaintiffs' arguments included the elimination of the state's sole majority-minority district, the use of census data containing racial demographics, the timing of the mid-decade redistricting, Tennessee's history of racial discrimination, and affidavits from Black voters in Memphis asserting that the new map diluted their voting strength. The judges noted that the plaintiffs presented no direct evidence and only weak circumstantial evidence.
Amber Sherman, one of the plaintiffs and an affected voter, expressed her disappointment, calling the court's decision "painful." She stated in a release, "The decisions by this court continue to further the disenfranchisement of Black voters in Memphis. We deserve the same opportunity to shape our future as anyone else. When our voting power is diluted, our neighborhoods have a harder time making their voices heard on the issues that shape our daily lives."
Although the preliminary injunction was denied, the underlying lawsuit remains active. The redrawing of congressional maps has been a significant point of contention. Since President Trump began advocating for GOP-led states to pursue mid-decade redistricting, at least eight states have adopted new congressional maps with the aim of gaining Republican seats. These states include Texas, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee. Democrats have initiated redistricting efforts in California, Utah, and Virginia, though Virginia's new map was subsequently overturned by the state's Supreme Court.