Voter confusion and campaign chaos cited in NAACP’s updated lawsuit over Tennessee redistricting

The NAACP Tennessee State Conference added a state representative and a U.S. House candidate as plaintiffs Tuesday in a new version of its lawsuit challenging the state’s redrawn congressional district map.

Gov. Bill Lee signed the new map on Thursday, May 7, carving up Memphis, the state’s only majority-Black, majority-Democrat district.

NAACP Tennessee President Gloria Sweet-Love filed the initial lawsuit within hours, asking the Davidson County Chancery Court to halt the use of the new map before this year’s election. 

The updated lawsuit adds arguments against another law approved during last week’s three-day special session that rewrites rules for the 2026 election, extending candidate qualifying deadlines and removing requirements that county election commissions mail notices to voters whose precinct and district boundaries change.

The qualifying deadline for U.S. House District candidates passed in March, but lawmakers’ new rules allow candidates to qualify by Friday, May 15. The change “will have a significant detrimental impact on the work of our state and county election officials, risks voter confusion, and potentially compromises the integrity of Tennessee’s elections,” according to the lawsuit.

Candidate Devante Hill, one of the new plaintiffs, had already mounted a campaign for District 9 before redistricting, investing about $100,000 in nonrefundable payments for marketing and voter outreach to communities within the former district boundaries, the lawsuit states. Now, Hill is pivoting his campaign to what is now District 5 in the final 100 days prior to the election, and many of the voters he spent money and time reaching are carved out of the district, equating to unrecoverable financial loss. 

The redrawn map has thrown Hill’s campaign “into a state of chaos and paralysis” as he faces additional previously unknown opposing candidates and has not yet received updated voter lists, creating “a significant competitive disadvantage,” according to the lawsuit.

Hill also no longer lives within the boundaries of the district he seeks to represent, so he cannot cast a ballot for himself, “a foundational act of political expression for any candidate,” the lawsuit states.

An injunction is necessary, according to the plaintiffs, because “the ticking clock of an election cycle means that this injury compounds daily, creating a disadvantage that cannot be undone after the fact. An election lost due to a paralyzed campaign is an injury that can never be redressed.”

Gov. Bill Lee’s proclamation for the special session “provides that action is being taken to ‘comply with mandatory election qualifying timelines,’ rather than changing any deadlines” that already existed, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit argues that Lee did not specifically state that the special session’s purpose included the repeal of a long-standing law prohibiting mid-decade redistricting, nor the suspension of residency requirements for the 2026 election. State law requires special legislative sessions to be limited to the purpose stated in the governor’s proclamation.

Tennessee House Rep. Jesse Chism, a Memphis Democrat and chair of the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators, is another new plaintiff. Chism sits on the House Calendar and Rules Committee, which schedules bills for final readings and considers merits of legislation recommended for passage by committees.

To Chism’s knowledge, the lawsuit states, no member of the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators were notified prior to the special session’s start that specific legislation was set to be repealed or suspended during the session, nor did they receive copies of that targeted legislation.

The new version of the lawsuit also adds defendants Secretary of State Tre Hargett and Elections Coordinator Mark Goins, an apparent answer to the state’s argument that original defendants Lee and the Tennessee General Assembly cannot be sued because they do not conduct elections.

A three-judge panel will hold the case’s first hearing on Thursday, May 21, at the Tennessee Supreme Court Building, six days after Tennessee’s new qualifying deadline for U.S. House candidates.
amended complaint – naacp