The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and its Tennessee chapter filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a coalition of voters and Memphis-based organizations on Monday challenging Tennessee’s newly enacted congressional redistricting plan, alleging that Republican lawmakers intentionally dismantled the state’s only “black-majority” congressional district in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the lawsuit accuses the “all-white supermajority” in the Tennessee General Assembly of unlawfully “cracking” Memphis into three separate congressional districts in order to “dilute” the black “voting power” and eliminate black voters’ ability to elect a candidate of their choice to Congress.
