Judges let Tennessee use map that could hand GOP all 9 House seats
What's next: The districts are set for Tennessee's Aug. 6 primaries, after a court found politics, not race, likely drove the redraw.
A three-judge federal panel allowed Tennessee to use a new congressional map that breaks up a Memphis-area majority-Black district, clearing the way for the lines to be used in the state's Aug. 6 primaries. The ruling is a win for Republicans, who argue the map could help them capture the only Democratic-held U.S. House seat in Tennessee and create a 9-0 GOP delegation. Plaintiffs, including Black voters from Memphis, argued the mid-decade redraw diluted Black voting power and violated the Constitution. But the judges wrote the challenge was unlikely to succeed because the evidence pointed to partisan aims rather than racial intent. The redraw followed an April Supreme Court ruling in the Louisiana case that weakened minority voting-rights protections in redistricting fights.