LDF Joins Lawsuit Challenging Discriminatory Tennessee Congressional Map

Filing Urges Court to Immediately Suspend the New Map for Upcoming Elections

On behalf of the Memphis Urban League, the Legal Defense Fund today joined the NAACP lawsuit challenging Tennessee's newly enacted congressional map that intentionally discriminates against Black voters. Today's filing asked the federal court to issue a preliminary injunction, temporarily halting implementation of the map for the 2026 elections while the lawsuit proceeds.

The new congressional map was enacted on May 7 after the Supreme Court weakened protections against racial discrimination in Louisiana v. Callais. In pursuit of its aim to dismantle the state's sole majority Black congressional district, the General Assembly rushed the map through a sham legislative process in just over 48 hours, with limited transparency or opportunity for public input. The plan the General Assembly enacted cracks Memphis, the largest majority-Black city in the United States, into three districts with nearly equal Black populations. This submerges Black Memphians into predominantly white, rural districts in a manner that appears designed to deny them any opportunity to elect their preferred candidates. The lawsuit alleges that the new map violates the 14th and 15th Amendments.

"Memphis has paid too high a price for the right to vote to have its power carved up behind closed doors," said Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League. "The Memphis Urban League's complaint speaks directly to the question of whether our democracy will honor equal protection and the Voting Rights Act, or tolerate modern-day vote dilution. We stand with the Memphis Urban League and the people of Memphis in demanding maps that reflect communities, not discrimination."

"The Memphis Urban League (MUL) has a long history of advancing civil rights, advocating for equal access, civic engagement, and protecting voting rights," said Gale Jones Carson, President and CEO of the Memphis Urban League. "The MUL has joined this lawsuit because the redistricting plan weakens the collective voting power of Black residents in Memphis and Shelby County by dividing communities among three congressional districts. We are reaffirming our commitment to protecting democratic participation and ensuring that every voice counts."

"Targeting Black voters by intentionally severing their communities into three districts to entrench white political power is both shameful and illegal," said Kathryn Sadasivan, Counsel at the Legal Defense Fund. "Black voters deserve fair representation in government, and they have suffered decades of intentional and blatant discrimination at the hands of those who oppose a free and fair multiracial democracy. Tennessee legislators turned their backs on Black voters and abandoned their core responsibility to protect their constituents when enacting this map. The court must not follow in their footsteps."

To learn more about racially discriminatory mid-decade redistricting, visit here.

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.