Challengers seek restraining orders for new voting map as US House candidate deadline approaches

Plaintiffs suing Tennessee over its redrawn U.S. House district map are seeking temporary restraining orders from federal judges to halt the map’s use before the fast-approaching Friday candidate qualifying deadline.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee requested a restraining order on Wednesday, citing an immediate need to “preserve the status quo” while awaiting the assignment of a three-judge panel to handle the case. The organization’s lawsuit argues that the new map, which eliminates Tennessee’s only majority-Black and majority-Democrat district, shows racial discrimination and First Amendment retaliation against Black voters.

A separate federal lawsuit filed by Democratic U.S. House candidates, the Tennessee Democratic Party and voters argues that allowing the new district lines to take effect would cause chaos and confusion for voters just three months before the Aug. 6 primary election. 

They also requested a temporary restraining order late Monday after U.S. District Court Judge William Campbell, a President Donald Trump appointee, scheduled an initial hearing for that case on May 20, five days after the new qualifying deadline. Their attorneys asked the court to rule “expeditiously” on the temporary restraining order motion in a new filing Thursday, pushing for a same-day decision. The court has yet to rule as of 10:45 a.m.

The Tennessee General Assembly’s Republican supermajority passed the new district map last week after a whirlwind special legislative session called by Gov. Bill Lee at Trump’s instruction. Lawmakers also passed new rules for the 2026 U.S. House election setting a May 15 deadline for candidates to qualify, cement which district they are running in or bow out of the race. Campaigns for U.S. House seats were already underway before the special session, which was called weeks after the election’s original March 10 qualifying deadline. 

Lawyers representing the state have objected to both restraining order requests. State attorneys also filed a motion Wednesday to combine the two federal cases, arguing that their legal issues overlap and they’re seeking the same outcome — halting the use of the new map.

Because both cases must be heard by a three-judge panel, consolidating them would avoid the “burdensome prospect of two courts and six judges wading through the cases’ many overlapping legal and factual issues on a compressed timeline,” state attorneys wrote.

The ACLU countered that the legal issues are distinct, and since there is an urgent need, keeping the cases separate is “in the interest of justice.”

The NAACP Tennessee Conference, a state representative and a U.S. House seat candidate filed a separate lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court hours after Lee signed the new map into law, requesting an emergency injunction. The lawsuit argues that the Tennessee General Assembly violated the state constitution when it passed the redrawn map because Lee’s proclamation calling the special session failed to specify state laws that would need to be repealed to allow mid-decade redistricting and changes to the election process. That case will be heard by a three-judge panel on May 21.