Sherman v. Hargett

The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Tennessee filed a federal lawsuit on May 11, 2026, challenging Tennessee’s discriminatory new congressional redistricting map.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three individual Memphis voters, as well as the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, the Memphis A. Philip Randolph Institute, and The Equity Alliance, who are seeking to block the map from taking effect before the August primary election.

Tennessee has had a Memphis-based congressional district for the better part of a century. The challenged map dismantles that district, which is the state’s only majority-Black congressional district. It divides Black voters in Memphis and Shelby County across three majority-white districts that stretch from Memphis hundreds of miles into central Tennessee, diluting Black Memphians’ votes and stripping those communities of any meaningful voice in Congress.