A three-judge panel of the Davidson County Chancery Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Tennessee State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other plaintiffs challenging Tennessee’s newly redrawn congressional map.
In a 27-page final order issued Tuesday, Chancellors Anne C. Martin and Tony Childress, along with Judge James Gass, ruled that the Tennessee General Assembly acted within the scope of the governor’s extraordinary-session proclamation when it approved three election measures (HB7001, HB7002, and HB7003) earlier this month.
The lawsuit argued that lawmakers unlawfully used a special legislative session to repeal Tennessee’s long-standing prohibition on congressional redistricting between censuses and to redraw the state’s congressional districts mid-decade.
The court rejected those claims in full, dismissing the case with prejudice.
According to the final order, the three-judge panel first determined that sovereign immunity barred claims against Governor Bill Lee and the General Assembly itself, leaving only Secretary of State Tre Hargett and Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins as proper defendants.
The judges then ruled that most plaintiffs – including the NAACP Tennessee State Conference, NAACP President Gloria Sweet-Love, and State Rep. Jesse Chism – failed to show the “distinct and palpable injury” necessary to establish standing under Tennessee law.
However, the panel found that congressional candidate Devante Hill had standing because he had already invested significant time and financial resources in campaigning in the old 9th Congressional District before lawmakers changed the district boundaries after the candidate-qualifying deadline had passed.
The court described Hill’s injury as “specific,” “concrete,” and ongoing because “the statutes that altered the course of his campaign” remained in effect; however, it ultimately ruled against him on the merits.
Judges also struck down plaintiffs’ claims against the change to Tennessee’s former statutory ban on redistricting congressional districts “between apportionments,” meaning between decennial censuses. Lawmakers repealed that language during the special session through House Bill (HB) 7002, before adopting new district lines in HB 7003.
The plaintiffs argued the repeal itself was unconstitutional because the governor’s proclamation did not specifically authorize lawmakers to eliminate the once-per-decade restriction.
The court disagreed, concluding that the governor’s call broadly authorized legislation concerning “the composition of Tennessee’s congressional districts” and “making statutory changes that are necessary to effectuate changes” to those districts.
The judges wrote that requiring courts to determine whether each legislative change was truly “necessary” would improperly force the judiciary to “micromanage” the legislative branch.
“It is sufficient for purposes of Article III, Section 9 that the legislation enacted in a special session be reasonably contained within the call of the Governor,” the panel wrote.
The panel also concluded that even if the repeal of the mid-decade redistricting ban had been unconstitutional, the newly enacted maps would likely still have survived.
The judges reasoned that HB 7003 – the statute actually redrawing the districts – either implicitly repealed the earlier prohibition or functioned as a more specific exception to the general rule against mid-decade redistricting.
“Under either scenario,” the court wrote, “HB 7003 will stand.”
Another lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s new congressional map was also struck down recently in federal court, when Chief U.S. District Court Judge William L. Campbell, Jr. issued an order blocking an emergency effort brought by the Tennessee Democratic Party and other plaintiffs, including U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) and State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), to halt the implementation of the new map and election law changes ahead of the 2026 election cycle.
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
