WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) – U.S. civil rights group NAACP said on Wednesday the new congressional map approved last week by Tennessee \u200bRepublicans intentionally discriminated on the basis of race against Black \u200cvoters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawsuit \u200balleges Tennessee lawmakers “intentionally redrew Congressional District 9 – a district anchored \u200bin Memphis for more than 50 years – to crack \u2060the majority-Black district across multiple districts, with the intent of eliminating \u200bBlack voting power and depriving them of a meaningful opportunity to \u200belect candidates of their choice,” the NAACP said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tennessee Republicans approved a new congressional map last week, as several other Southern states seek to leverage a U.S. Supreme \u200bCourt decision from late April that severely weakened the landmark Voting Rights \u200bAct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The redistricting plan “violates the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by \u200cintentionally \u2060discriminating on the basis of race,” NAACP said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republican \u200bPresident Donald Trump launched a national \u200bmid-decade redistricting \u2060battle between Democrats and Republicans last year ahead of this year’s midterm elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Republican Party is aiming \u200bin the elections to retain its current thin \u200bmajorities in \u2060the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republican-led states are moving to test new limits of minority-vote protections following the Supreme Court’s April 29 \u2060decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Civil \u200brights groups have sued to challenge the \u200bredrawing of districts that have a significant population of communities of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n