Tennessee redistricting map upheld as Black voters lose injunction
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The redrawn Tennessee congressional map, which is expected to give Republicans a 9-0 advantage in congressional seats, will remain in effect in the state’s Aug. 6 primary, handing another victory to President Donald Trump and his allies as they try to preserve the GOP’s House majority ahead of the midterm elections.
A three-judge panel on Thursday rejected a request for an injunction filed by a group of Black Tennessee voters and civil rights organizations who argued the map was deliberately intended to weaken the power of Black voters.
The case stems from Tennessee lawmakers redrawing the state’s congressional map during a special session in May following the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais that made it harder to challenge redistricting plans on racial discrimination grounds. The new map divided Memphis and Shelby County into three congressional districts, effectively breaking up Tennessee’s only majority-black district. Republican lawmakers have said the goal is to create a map that favors Republicans in all nine congressional districts and help preserve the GOP’s majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Voting machine operator David Schaefer (R) helps voter Kaitron Gordon vote in Tennessee’s Super Tuesday primary at the Cleveland Park Community Center area on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. A judge ruled that Super Tuesday polls will remain open later in Nashville after deadly tornadoes overnight delayed the start of voting in the city and left some polling places unusable. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
The justices — two appointed by Trump and one appointed by President Barack Obama — concluded that there was evidence pointing to partisan politics as the driving force behind redistricting.
“In fact, Plaintiffs will not succeed on their vote dilution claims because they have not presented meaningful evidence that race, not politics, motivated Tennessee’s May 2026 map,” the justices wrote.
The justices took the case to the Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in Cooper v. He compared it to his decision in the Harris case; here the Supreme Court ruled that there was direct evidence that race influenced the redistricting process.
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Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced this 9-0 Republican-favored map for the state after last week’s Supreme Court decision. (Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn./X)
“Plaintiffs’ evidence is very different from the ‘absolutely proven’ direct evidence in Cooper v. Harris.”
Plaintiffs cited as evidence the map that eliminated the state’s only majority-minority district; lawmakers’ use of census data that includes racial demographics; the unusual timing of redistricting in the middle of the decade; Tennessee’s history of racial segregation; and statements from Black Memphis voters who say the new map reduces their voting power.
“Plaintiffs present no direct evidence, weak circumstantial evidence, and no means for Tennessee to achieve its political goals without having the same effect,” the justices wrote.
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Amber Sherman, one of the plaintiffs in the case and an affected voter, called the panel’s denial of the preliminary injunction “painful.”
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“This court’s decisions continue to further the disenfranchisement of Black voters in Memphis,” Sherman said in a statement. “We deserve the same opportunity as everyone else to shape our future. When our voting power diminishes, our neighborhoods struggle to have their voices heard on the issues that shape our daily lives.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport on March 23, 2026 in West Palm Beach, Florida. President Trump is heading to Tennessee before returning to Washington. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
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While the request for interim injunction was rejected, the case continues.
Since Trump began calling on GOP-led states to redistrict in the middle of the decade, at least eight states have adopted new congressional maps, with Republicans hoping to gain seats in Texas, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee. Democrats responded with redistricting efforts in California, Utah and Virginia, but Virginia’s new map was later struck down by the state’s Supreme Court.
