After Sunday morning services June 7 at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, a crowd of more than 500 people filled the church again that evening for the opening of a get-out-the-vote campaign that organizers likened to a return to civil rights organizing efforts of the 1960s.

Mississippi Boulevard Pastor J. Lawrence Turner called the effort “Freedom Summer 2.0.” It’s a reference to the 1964 Civil Rights Movement campaign to register Black voters in Mississippi that was staged in Memphis and was met with Ku Klux Klan violence.

Images from the movement of the 1960s flashed on a screen as the featured speakers pushed for a better organized get-out-the-vote effort specifically pointed at the congressional races and starting with the Aug. 6 primaries.

A film clip of activist Fannie Lou Hamer from the 1964 Democratic National Convention played as she testified to a credentials committee about attempting to register to vote in Mississippi.

Tennessee Rep. Jesse Chism, D-Memphis, knew some of his comments at a Thursday, May 29, town hall would be difficult for some in the audience to hear.

“I’m gonna be honest with y’all. … Since 2004, many of us, we have been asleep at the wheel. … We drank the Kool-Aid of a post-racial America,” Chism said. “What we’re finding out ... (is) there’s no such thing as a post-racial America.”

Chism’s state House colleague, Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, held the town hall meeting Thursday to discuss and educate constituents about Tennessee’s new congressional redistricting that split Memphis into three separate districts. 

Panelists spoke to the crowd of more than 200 people gathered at Breath of Life Christian Church, 3795 Frayser-Raleigh Road. They talked about the historical context of voter suppression where current litigation surrounding the recent redistricting process lies and the importance of not “falling asleep at the wheel.”

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee ordered a three-judge panel Wednesday, May 27, to preside over federal lawsuits that challenge the constitutionality of Tennessee’s new congressional district map, effectively consolidating the cases.

The panel will preside over lawsuits aimed at Tennessee’s Secretary of State Tre Hargett and the state’s Commissioner of Elections Mark Goins, among others responsible for the new map’s implementation. 

Chief Judge William Campbell Jr. requested the three-judge panel, recommending that the consolidation would help with case management.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Chief Judge Jeffery Sutton approved the request, appointing Circuit Court Judge John B. Nalbandian and District Judge Greg N. Stivers to serve alongside Campbell until the end of the proceedings. Nalbandian and Campbell are both President Donald Trump appointees; Stivers was appointed by former President Barack Obama.

A panel of judges upheld Tennessee’s new congressional map Tuesday, May 26, in Davidson County Chancery Court.

The decision, in a lawsuit brought by the NAACP State Conference of Tennessee, is a setback for those wishing to preserve Tennessee’s only majority-Black congressional district.

The panel, made up of Chancellor Anne C. Martin, Chancellor Tony Childress and Judge James Gass, filed a 27-page memo detailing why they ruled against the NAACP, its president, Gloria Sweet-Love, and state Rep. Jesse Chism, D-Memphis.

It said that both Chism and Sweet-Love lacked standing by not establishing a “distinct and palpable” injury.

There are a total of four lawsuits that challenge the Tennessee General Assembly’s new congressional map making their way through Middle Tennessee courts.

State lawmakers passed legislation to redraw congressional boundaries after an April 29 Supreme Court ruling that weakened a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Plaintiffs argue the redistricting fractured Black communities for partisan advantage by dismantling of the state’s only majority-Black congressional district in Memphis. The state maintains that the maps were made only to obtain a partisan advantage and “to avoid litigation risks of the old map.”

Three of the four pending lawsuits were filed in federal court. The Tennessee NAACP also filed a case against the redistricting in Davidson County Chancery Court. That case was heard in Nashville on May 21.

Columbia, Tennessee, Mayor Chaz Molder and 5th District Congressman Andy Ogles live in the same town of 50,000 south of Nashville in Maury County — but different congressional districts since the recent shuffle of district lines by the Tennessee Legislature. 

“We can drive two streets over and be in the 5th Congressional District. The Legislature knew exactly what they were doing when they tried to carve me out of the district,” Molder said on Beale Street Friday, May 22, as he relaunched his bid in the August Democratic primary to unseat Ogles, a Republican, come the November general elections.

Molder’s journey through the new 5th District took him from his Middle Tennessee home, westward to Memphis followed by a stop in Ripley.

Molder, in his second term as mayor of Columbia, attended the University of Memphis Law School and lived in the city with his wife for three years.

A federal judge released his reasons for denying a coalition of Democrats a preliminary injunction last week against Tennessee’s new congressional map.

Federal Circuit Judge William Campbell Jr. wrote in a Thursday, May 21, legal memo that since the new map does not severely impact the plaintiffs’ right to vote and the state set aside enough resources to help election officials prepare, there is no need to approve a temporary restraining order blocking the map’s enactment. 

“Even if the burden on the right to vote falls somewhere between ‘minimally burdensome’ and ‘severe restrictions’, plaintiffs have not clearly shown they are entitled to relief,” Campbell wrote a week after his initial May 14 ruling.

Plaintiffs believe they are entitled to relief because of anticipated voter confusion, but that was not enough to qualify as an injury requiring immediate relief, according to the judge’s memo. 

A clash of titans is set to take place between attorneys from the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project and those from the conservative law firm Consovoy McCarthy over Tennessee’s new congressional map, passed in a three-day special session earlier this month.

Additionally, a separate federal case challenging the new map, this one brought by the NAACP, was reassigned to the judge who recently denied requests for temporary restraining orders.

The U.S. District Court of the Middle District of Tennessee accepted on May 18 pro hac vice requests for four ACLU attorneys: Theresa J. Lee, Ari J. Savitzky, Jonathan Topaz, Sophia Lin Lakin and Dayton Campbell-Harris.

The ACLU attorneys have dozens of cases in federal court between them. Savitzky, an ACLU senior staff attorney and former Assistant Solicitor General for New York state, has personally prepared more than 20 briefs for the Supreme Court.

Lawyers representing Tennessee in two federal lawsuits tapped Consovoy McCarthy, the law firm central to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning affirmative action in college admissions in 2023, to help defend new congressional maps in court.

The lawyers would be used to argue against a suit brought by the NAACP State Conference of Tennessee and its president, Gloria Sweet-Love, as well as a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.

Lawyers from the firm also represented two student loan borrowers who sued former President Joe Biden’s administration about a proposed student-loan-forgiveness plan, which the U.S. Supreme Court also overturned.

Court records from Friday show the defense filed three requests for three lawyers to be admitted pro hac vice from Virginia. This means they can practice law in Tennessee even though they are not licensed to practice here — but only for the single case.

NASHVILLE — A Davidson County Chancery Court heard arguments Thursday, May 21, for and against a request for a temporary injunction in relation to Tennessee’s new congressional map.

The three-judge panel — made up of Chancellor Anne Martin, Chancellor Tony Childress and Circuit Court Judge Jim Gass — could rule soon on whether or not the Tennessee General Assembly acted unconstitutionally when it passed a new congressional map in a whirlwind three-day session earlier this month. 

It could rule as soon as Thursday afternoon on the Temporary Restraining Order request, which would pause implementation of the map while the case continues to play out in court. The new map redraws the state’s congressional boundaries, splitting majority-Black Memphis into three separate districts ahead of this year’s elections.

The plaintiffs — including the Tennessee State Conference NAACP and its president Gloria Sweet-Love — argued that implementing the map was outside the scope of Gov. Bill Lee’s call for a special session on May 1. The session quickly followed the Supreme Court’s April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callias, which essentially legalized partisan gerrymandering.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen has abandoned his reelection bid in the redrawn 9th Congressional District or any of Tennessee’s other congressional districts.

The Memphis Democrat made the announcement Friday, May 15, in Washington, D.C., two hours ahead of the noon Friday, May 15, filing deadline for the new districts.

“This is the most difficult moment I’ve had as an elected official,” Cohen said from his Washington office in a press conference carried by C-SPAN as he announced he had withdrawn his qualifying petition.

Tennessee’s new congressional district map — which state lawmakers enacted following a three-day special session last week — carves the Memphis 9th District into thirds. 

Correction: The federal judge overseeing the lawsuits denied the TRO request brought by a coalition of Tennessee voters and congressional candidates, but the ACLU’s request was still pending as of May 20.

A judge ruled in favor of the state Thursday, May 14, in regard to Tennessee’s newly passed congressional map, creating a roadblock for those seeking to block it.

U.S. Chief District Judge William Lynn Campbell Jr. denied the plaintiffs’ requests for a temporary injunction in one of three federal lawsuits aimed at stopping the new map from being implemented before the August primaries.

“For the reasons stated in the forthcoming memorandum, the motion is denied as to the request for a temporary restraining order,” Campbell wrote in the one-page filing in the case of Hale v. Lee, a federal case brought against the state by a coalition of Tennessee voters and congressional candidates — including U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen — and the Tennessee Democratic Party.

Another lawsuit has been filed against Tennessee’s new congressional maps, bringing the total to four.

The Tennessee State Conference NAACP and the League of Women Voters of Tennessee filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday, May 13, against the state, challenging its “racially discriminatory” congressional map. The Tennessee NAACP has already filed one lawsuit — that one in Davidson County Chancery Court — against the redistricting.

The plaintiffs on the latest lawsuit include a coalition of the state LWV and NAACP as well as other organizations and individuals. It names Secretary of State Tre Hargett, Tennessee Elections Coordinator Mark Goins and the state election commission and its members as defendants.

The Tennessee General Assembly approved the new map May 7, capping off a whirlwind special session called by Gov. Bill Lee. Lee signed the bill into law within two hours of the special session’s conclusion.

Tennessee House of Representatives Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, received a letter Tuesday, May 12, informing her that her Democratic colleagues in the House were being removed from their committee assignments. 

The move came as a result of Democrats’ actions on the House floor May 7 during a vote on new a congressional map that splits majority-Democratic Shelby County into three different districts.

In the letter from House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, he blamed Democrats for “instigating and encouraging disruptions of the legislative process in coordination with paid protestors and attendees in the gallery.”

They also acted against House rules by blocking the aisle, interlocking arms in the well and disrespecting other members of the House, according to Sexton’s letter.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Tennessee filed a federal lawsuit Monday, May 11, challenging the state’s new Congressional redistricting map.

The suit is the third filed over the issue. It follows lawsuits filed last week by the Tennessee State Conference NAACP and by a coalition of the Tennessee Democratic Party, Tennessee voters and Congressional candidates in suing state officials. 

The ACLU lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on behalf of three Memphis voters, as well as the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, the Memphis A. Philip Randolph Institute and the Equity Alliance. The plaintiffs are seeking to block the new map from taking effect before the August primary election, to the same end as the other two lawsuits. All three aim to temporarily halt the redistricting plan until final decisions can be made in court.

“Black voters in Memphis did exactly what the Constitution empowers every American to do, which is to choose their representative,” said ACLU of Tennessee Executive Director Miriam R. Nemeth. “The Legislature’s response was an effort to ensure that those votes never carry the same weight again. The law has a name for this, and it’s not redistricting, it is textbook First Amendment retaliation. And it is, at its heart, racism.”

The Shelby County Election Commission plans to request $350,000 in state funding to pay overtime and vendor fees incurred as a result of the Congressional redistricting.

Shelby County Elections Administrator Linda Phillips told reporters Tuesday, May 12, that she would also seek additional county funding to mail notices to voters whose congressional district has changed.

Legislators included some funding to pay for the adjustments but did not require local election commissions to notify voters that they are in a new district.

The Tennessee General Assembly approved the redistricting plan May 7, splitting Memphis and Shelby among Districts 5, 8 and 9.

Tennessee Rep. Justin J. Pearson is sticking with the 9th Congressional District Democratic primary even though, by the new map’s district boundaries, he now lives in the 5th.

Standing at the corner of Airways Boulevard and Park Avenue in Orange Mound, Pearson announced his intention Tuesday, May 12, to stay in the 9th District primary for which he is already qualified. If he wins the Democratic nomination in August and the general election in November, Pearson said he will move within the 9th’s new boundaries.

With Memphis, as of last week, divided among three congressional districts, the city will now share representation with a wide swath of rural West Tennessee and some Middle Tennessee counties. Pearson is the first contender among those who filed under the old boundaries to officially announce his choice.

The Tennessee General Assembly approved the redistricting plan May 7, splitting the state’s biggest blue county — Shelby — among District 5, 8 and 9.

One of the three lawsuits filed in response to Tennessee’s congressional redistricting has a court date.

A hearing for a temporary injunction against the new map is set for Thursday, May 21, at 9 a.m. in Davidson County Chancery Court.

The Tennessee State Conference NAACP filed its lawsuit against the state May 7, the same day the Tennessee General Assembly passed a set of bills that redraw the state’s congressional district boundaries.

The NAACP and its Tennessee State Conference President Gloria Sweet-Love are seeking a temporary injunction, meaning they’re asking for the new map’s implementation to be halted until the matter is decided in court.

Memphis City Council members vote Tuesday, May 12, on a resolution opposing the congressional redistricting map approved in this month’s special session of the Tennessee General Assembly.

The resolution by council members JB Smiley Jr. and Janika White is a nonbinding action that doesn’t affect the body’s decision to divide the city among three newly drawn congressional districts.

Each of those districts takes in large swaths of rural West Tennessee with one extending into Williamson County in Middle Tennessee.

The resolution says the council is “vehemently” opposed to the new district lines “as it has damaging effects on the City of Memphis’s voters and congressional representation, undermines the priorities of the City of Memphis, and disrespects the history, work, sacrifice, and martyrdom of civil rights and voting rights advocates from the past through the present day.”

The Tennessee Democratic Party and other plaintiffs, including U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., filed a lawsuit late Thursday, May 7, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, challenging the legality of the state’s new congressional map.

The new map, which Gov. Bill Lee signed into law Thursday, redraws the state’s congressional boundaries, splitting the majority-Black Memphis into three separate districts ahead of this year’s elections. 

The Republican-led redistricting effort closely followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the Louisiana v. Callais decision, which weakened a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The Tennessee Democratic Party supported multiple events and several rallies during the three-day special session that led to the map’s passage into law, calling for better maps with better representation.

Tennessee lawmakers passed a new Congressional map Thursday, May 7, redistricting the state and splitting Shelby County into three different districts.

It’s left many Memphians wondering what district they’re in under the new boundaries.

Shelby County residents are now part of either the 5th, 8th or 9th Congressional District of Tennessee. Maps for each district can be found on the state Comptroller of the Treasury’s website.

District 5 is closest to the Mississippi River and includes areas near Coro Lake, Raleigh Egypt High School, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and Overton Park.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the state’s new congressional map into law Thursday, May 7, according to the General Assembly’s website.

He signed the bill less than two hours after it passed in a whirlwind special session marked by protests from community members and lawmakers.

Lee also signed several more bills related to redistricting.

Those bills repealed a 1972 law that banned mid-census cycle redistricting, changed residency requirements for those who wish to run to represent the new districts, and pushed back the filing deadline for candidates.

State Rep. Brent Taylor, R-Eads, announced his intent to run for the state’s new Congressional District 9 seat — representing Middle and West Tennessee — within an hour of redistricting passing in Nashville.

In his announcement, Taylor said he would “fight to cement Tennessee’s conservative legacy for generations to come.”

“Tennessee’s new congressional map has created an opportunity to deliver another strong Republican voice to Congress and secure a brighter, safer, and more conservative future for our state and our country, and I’m ready to be that leader,” Taylor said.

Both Tennessee senators, Republicans Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, endorsed Taylor’s run in concert with his announcement.

NASHVILLE — Tennessee lawmakers passed a new Congressional map Thursday, May 7, less than a week after Gov. Bill Lee called for a special session to redistrict the state.

The new map splits majority-Democratic Shelby County into three different districts, redrawing the boundaries of a U.S. House seat that’s been reliably blue for more than 50 years.

“Ayes 25, five nays,” said the clerk in the state Senate. 

The legislation passed in the Tennessee House of Representatives on a 65-24 vote with three present and not voting.

The women walked into chambers wearing white suits and dresses, while the men joined them in white shirts and ties topped with navy blazers.

The color coordination by the 30 Democratic members of the Tennessee state legislature on Thursday, April 7, wasn’t an accident, as white has historically been linked to the suffrage movement.

Those six state senators and 24 representatives, many from Memphis, said they were using their clothing as a silent — but highly visible — protest against the legislature’s congressional redistricting plan. 

“This white stands for all those who came before us who sacrificed for representation equity, and we wanted to make sure that we carried that same mantle,” said state Sen. London Lamar, D-Memphis. “That is why we wore white today as a form of solidarity, as a form to say that we do not like our representation being erased.”

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen said Thursday, May 7, that he is one of a group of legislators that plans to sue the State of Tennessee over the redrawn congressional map. 

The Memphis Democrat, who has represented the 9th Congressional District for almost two decades, said that he will be part of a lawsuit that will argue a redrawn congressional map would impair his First Amendment rights because it comes in the middle of his reelection campaign. 

“We’ve been campaigning hard since the filing deadline ... and that’s a First Amendment violation, so there will be a lawsuit in state court. I’ll be a plaintiff, among others,” Cohen said. 

The Tennessee General Assembly is currently in the process of redrawing and approving new lines for the state’s nine congressional districts. 

The newly released proposal for Tennessee’s congressional map splits Memphis and Shelby County into thirds.

And a close-up of Shelby County, obtained by The Daily Memphian and shared by legislators on social media, shows that most of Memphis’ municipal limits appear to be split roughly three ways.

The map obtained by The Daily Memphian does not include streets, precincts or municipal boundaries. 

Proposed 9th District (yellow)

The close-up shows that the 9th, which currently covers most of Memphis and Shelby County, would change to stretch east from parts of Whitehaven into what appear to be portions of southeastern Shelby County and Collierville.

NASHVILLE — At least a hundred had gathered at the Cordell Hull State Office Building in Nashville to watch lawmakers decide whether or not to send a newly introduced congressional map to full floor votes.

State House and Senate committees voted Wednesday, May 6, to send the bills — SB7004/HB7003 — and a new congressional map to full votes. The move stirred up dozens of demonstrators who came to protest the Republican-led plan. 

Officers cleared the room for one committee meeting after the crowd of protesters inside broke out into chants. State Rep. Gabby Salinas, D-Memphis, told The Daily Memphian that, at one point, the state troopers denied her entrance to the committee room.

State Sen. London Lamar, D-Memphis, eventually pleaded with protesters to let lawmakers do their business after state Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Hixson, said their disruptions were hurting their cause.

Tennessee Republicans on Wednesday, May 6, proposed a new Congressional map to redraw districts across the state and carve Memphis’ 9th Congressional district, a Democratic stronghold, into thirds.

The map would make all nine of Tennessee’s seats Republican-leaning districts. It would slice Shelby County three ways into rural districts that stretch north and east from Memphis’ reliably blue southwestern corner. 

The proposed map comes on the second day of a three-day special session of the Tennessee General Assembly.

Gov. Bill Lee convened the session quickly after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week weakened a provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The court struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana, opening the door to more redistricting across the country that could aid Republican efforts to control the House. 

State lawmakers meet Tuesday, May 5, in a special session called by Gov. Bill Lee.

The session is expected to see a vote in the Tennessee General Assembly on redrawing the state’s nine Congressional districts. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen — Tennessee’s only elected Democrat in Washington D.C. — currently represents the state’s 9th District, which is primarily made up of the City of Memphis.

Lawmakers will reconvene less than two weeks after the regular legislative session closed in what Republicans plan to be a short affair. Republican leaders framed the special session as “a critical opportunity to send another Tennessee Republican to Washington who will support President Trump,” according to Senate Majority Speaker Jack Johnson, R-Franklin.

Meanwhile, Democrats say redistricting is a deliberate attempt to dilute Black political voices and “a raw political power grab aimed directly at Memphis,” according to Senate Democratic Caucus Chairwoman London Lamar, D-Memphis.

NASHVILLE — Emotions ran high Tuesday, May 5, as people gathered to protest Republicans’ attempt to redraw Tennessee’s congressional maps.

Democrats from the Tennessee Senate and House of Representatives held an 11 a.m. press conference alongside U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, the state’s only elected Democrat in Washington. The press conference was followed by a protest on the Beth Harwell Plaza, just outside of lawmakers’ offices in the Cordell Hull building.

Elected officials, people who traveled from Memphis and local advocates turned up to fight against the effort to divide Memphis’ 9th Congressional District and therefore make the seat easier for Republicans to win. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced last week that he would call the Tennessee General Assembly into special session on redistricting; that session began Tuesday.

Cohen, who has represented the state’s District 9 since 2007, urged Memphians to vote out anyone who votes in favor of redistricting their city.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Friday, May 1, that he is calling the Tennessee General Assembly into special session on redistricting, to begin Tuesday, May 5.

“We owe it to Tennesseans to ensure our congressional districts accurately reflect the will of Tennessee voters,” Lee said in a statement late Friday afternoon. “After consultation with the lieutenant governor, speaker of the House, attorney general, and secretary of state, I believe the General Assembly has a responsibility to review the map and ensure it remains fair, legal and defensible.”

Lee said the legislature’s review will have to be quick citing “mandatory election qualifying timelines.”

But the races for the state’s nine Congressional District primaries on the Aug. 6 ballot have already been certified with the fields of contenders.

President Donald Trump says Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has told him he will “work hard” to redraw the state’s congressional districts this year.

In a Thursday, April 30 post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that Lee “would work hard to correct the unconstitutional flaw in the Congressional Maps of the Great State of Tennessee.” 

The post comes in the wake of Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened a key provision of the 1965 Civil Rights Act. In its ruling, the court struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana, opening the door for more redistricting across the country that could aid Republican efforts to control the House.

In his post, Trump wrote that he talked with Lee Thursday morning about a special legislative session to “give us one extra seat, and help Save our Country from the Radical Left Democrats, and their Country destroying Policies of High Tax, Open Borders, Transgender Mutilization, Defunding the Police, ICE, and Border Patrol, No Voter ID, Soft on Crime, and so much more.”

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is calling for the Tennessee General Assembly to reconvene to redraw district lines for the state’s nine Congressional districts.

“I urge our state legislature to reconvene to redistrict another Republican seat in Memphis,” Blackburn posted on her campaign X account shortly after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Wednesday, April 29, that appeared to weaken a provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The landmark Civil Rights-era law, which has increased minority representation in Congress and elsewhere, permits the drawing of legislative districts to concentrate Black and minority voting power as an antidote to redistricting practices that diluted Black voting power. In its 6-3 ruling Wednesday, the court struck down a majority Black congressional district in Louisiana, opening the door for more redistricting across the country that could aid Republican efforts to control the House.

The plaintiffs argued that Louisiana’s second Black-majority congressional district, drawn to correct a previously discriminatory map, has an unconstitutional racial basis and did not follow the standards for drawing a district, including compactness.