Is Memphis the new redistricting battleground mecca?

USA TODAY

Updated May 8, 2026, 1:47 p.m. ET

Memphis might be the birthplace of a renewed civil rights movement amid President Donald Trump's ongoing redistricting war.

Greetings, This is America readers, I'm Phillip M. Bailey, chief political correspondent with USA TODAY, with an assist from Terry Collins, a national correspondent at USA TODAY.

The aftermath of the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision knocking down a key protection in the Voting Rights Act is reverberating across the nation.

No place is experiencing it more than Memphis, Tennessee, where residents saw state lawmakers in Nashville approve a new congressional map on May 7 during a chaotic session that now divides Memphis' majority Black voters into three districts and eliminates the state's last Democratic congressional seat.

"The map was drawn to maximize Republicans' ability to win nine congressional seats," Tennessee state Sen. John Stevens, R-Huntington, the bill's sponsor, said. "The goal of this legislation is to support the National Republican Party’s ability to defend the Republican majority in Congress."

Incensed protesters wrote with chalk on the Capitol steps and plaza: "You killed democracy, shame!" "The Black vote was lynched today," and "Freedom died today."

After the House vote was taken, Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, a Democrat, burned a photo of a Confederate flag in the Capitol rotunda in protest as Memphis, an epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement dating back to the 1860s, could be in the spotlight again, either in the courts, the streets, or both.

Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, walks out of the House Chamber and burns a photo of the Confederate Flag with the words “We Will Not Go Back” on the third day of a special session concerning redistricting at the Tennessee Capitol in Nashville on Thursday, May 7, 2026.

“To make it very clear, we're not going to stand down," LaGina Mitchell-Scott, a local activist and political candidate, said. "We're going to fight."

For more on voting rights, check out USA TODAY's coverage:

SCOTUS issues a new voting ruling that boosts the GOP: Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has allowed its recent ruling limiting a key part of the Voting Rights Act to take effect early, boosting the odds that Republicans in Louisiana can impose a new congressional map in that state before the November election.

The high court customarily holds on to decisions for a month to allow time for the losing side to request another hearing. But voters who won the case wanted the transfer to occur without the waiting period to allow more time for new maps to be drawn.

People rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court following arguments heard in Louisiana v. Callais on March 24, 2025. On April 29, 2026, the nation's highest court struck down a Louisiana congressional map that a group of voters who describe themselves as “non-African American” had challenged as the product of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. By a vote of 6-3, the justices left in place a ruling by a federal court that barred the state from using the map, which had created a second majority-Black district, in future elections.

Black voters who feared losing representation in Congress opposed that request and argued the justices should instead hold on to their April 29 ruling until after the election because voting in the primary had already begun.

The court's response to the emergency request on May 4 was unsigned. But in a concurrence, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that Louisiana should not have to use a map that's now unconstitutional. There's still time, Alito suggested, for the state Legislature to adopt a new map.

However, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in dissent that the court's decisions have "spawned chaos" in Louisiana. "To avoid the appearance of partiality here, we could, as per usual, opt to stay on the sidelines and take no position by applying our default procedures," Jackson wrote. "But, today, the Court chooses the opposite."

Also, an Alabama special legislative session drew widespread protest this week as state lawmakers consider redrawing congressional maps that favor Republicans, according to the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network. Alabama's May 19 primary is set to go ahead, with governor and U.S. Senate races on the ballot.

FBI raids longtime Virginia politician L. Louise Lucas' office

Sen. Louise Lucas (D-VA) speaks during the investiture ceremony of Chief Justice Cleo E. Powell in the chamber of the Supreme Court of Virginia, on March 2, 2026 in Richmond, Virginia.

The FBI searched the office of Virginia state Senate leader L. Louise Lucas and a cannabis retail business she co-owns on May 6 as part of a corruption investigation.

In a statement to USA TODAY, the FBI said it is executing a court-authorized federal search warrant in Portsmouth, Virginia. "There is no threat to public safety. This is an ongoing investigation and no further information is publicly available at this time," the bureau added.

A longtime state lawmaker, Lucas helped lead Virginia's recent redistricting effort, which is expected to enable more Democrats to win congressional seats in the upcoming midterms. In a lengthy response on social media, the 82-year-old Lucas said she was proud to have led the effort and has "never been afraid" to stand up to President Trump or anyone else she feels has tried to undermine democracy.

"I am not backing down, and I will keep fighting for the people of Portsmouth and the Commonwealth of Virginia," Lucas said.

Her comments came two days before the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the voter-approved map, a crushing blow to Democrats six months from the November election. The May 8 ruling struck at the heart of the Democrats' plans to counter the GOP's gerrymandering and retake the U.S. House, tying up Congress for the rest of President Trump's second term.

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