WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) – U.S. civil rights group NAACP said on Wednesday the new congressional map approved last week by Tennessee Republicans intentionally discriminated on the basis of race against Black voters.
The United States’ largest civil rights group said it filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
The lawsuit alleges Tennessee lawmakers “intentionally redrew Congressional District 9 – a district anchored in Memphis for more than 50 years – to crack the majority-Black district across multiple districts, with the intent of eliminating Black voting power and depriving them of a meaningful opportunity to elect candidates of their choice,” the NAACP said.
Tennessee Republicans approved a new congressional map last week, as several other Southern states seek to leverage a U.S. Supreme Court decision from late April that severely weakened the landmark Voting Rights Act.
The redistricting plan “violates the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by intentionally discriminating on the basis of race,” NAACP said.
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett and the state Election Commission had no immediate comment on the suit in which their offices were named as defendants.
Republican President Donald Trump launched a national mid-decade redistricting battle between Democrats and Republicans last year ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
The Republican Party is aiming in the elections to retain its current thin majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
Republican-led states are moving to test new limits of minority-vote protections following the Supreme Court’s April 29 decision.
Civil rights groups have sued to challenge the redrawing of districts that have a significant population of communities of color.
