Tennessee draws its congressional map by regular legislation. Lawmakers passed a new nine-district plan in January 2022, and Governor Bill Lee signed it in early February 2022. The plan notably split Nashville among three seats and has been used since the 2022 elections. In Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP v. Lee, a federal three-judge court later dismissed a racial gerrymandering suit challenging the congressional map and one state senate district. The court concluded the allegations fit partisan rather than racial line-drawing motivations. The plaintiffs in the case declined to refile after the Supreme Court’s decision in Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP, which tightened pleading standards for racial gerrymandering claims.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's April 29, 2026 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, Governor Lee called a special session beginning May 5, 2026. The legislature first repealed the state's longstanding statutory prohibition on mid-decade congressional redistricting (HB 7002), then passed a new nine-district map (HB 7003) that divides Shelby County -home to Memphis- among three districts, eliminating the state's only majority-Black and sole Democratic-held congressional seat. Governor Lee signed both bills into law on May 7, 2026, making Tennessee the first state to enact a new congressional map following Callais.

State legislative maps (House and Senate) were enacted at the same time as the congressional map and were signed on February 6, 2022. Litigation then focused on the Senate plan’s numbering of districts in Davidson County. In Moore v. Lee, a trial court panel enjoined the Senate map on April 6, 2022, but the Tennessee Supreme Court vacated that injunction on April 13, 2022, allowing the maps to be used in 2022 while the case continued. On November 22, 2023, the three-judge panel again ruled the Senate map unconstitutional for failing to number districts consecutively and set a January 31, 2024, deadline for a fix. The Tennessee Supreme Court stayed that order in December 2023, and the 2022 plans remained in effect for 2024 while the appeal proceeded.

last updated: May 2026