(The Center Square) – Memphis and Shelby County are split into three districts in a congressional map approved Thursday by the House of Representatives in Tennessee.
The new map leans heavily Republican. The Senate took up the legislation later in the day.
House Democrats called the map racist in debate on the House floor on Thursday. Protests in the chamber were loud.
“How can we say it’s not about race when nearly half of the Black population in Tennessee lives in Memphis and Shelby County?” said Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis.
Sen. John Stevens, R-Huntingdon, said some Democratic states have shifted their district lines to benefit their party.
“This bill represents Tennessee’s attempt to maximize our partisan advantage and allow Tennesseans to support a national Congress to be a Republican majority,” Stevens said.
Gov. Bill Lee called lawmakers back to Nashville for the special session after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana’s redistricting map, forced by a lower court, relied too heavily on race.
In Louisiana v. Callais, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled authority to alter districts that would guarantee the race – any race – of an elected representative is not given through the Constitution or Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It was in keeping with several other opinions, including a 2007 Seattle voluntary school integration case for which Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “The way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”
