TENNESSEE — President Donald Trump said Tennessee will redraw its congressional electoral map following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Trump announced the move in a written post.

"This should give us one extra seat, and help Save our Country from the Radical Left Democrats," Trump wrote. The Supreme Court's ruling on Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act removed some race-related restrictions on how congressional district maps can be drawn and raised the bar for proving a map illegal by requiring challengers to prove racist intent. In a 6-3 decision, the court weakened four decades of voting rights law.

The court struck down Louisiana's congressional map in Louisiana v. Callais and rewrote the legal test for proving racial discrimination in redistricting. Louisiana's current map, which included two Black majority districts, was deemed unconstitutional.

"Allowing race to play any part in government decision-making represents a departure from the constitutional rule that applies in almost every other context," Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the ruling. The decision changed what plaintiffs must demonstrate when contesting a district map in court.

"Litigants have to provide proof that a state was intentionally trying to afford racial minority voters less opportunity because of their race," Cardozo Law School professor Wilfred Codrington said.

Redistricting typically occurs once every decade following the U.S. Census to account for population changes. In most states, state legislatures and officials oversee the redistricting process, while some states rely on independent commissions. The practice has long been subject to gerrymandering, in which districts are drawn to favor one political party over another. Both political parties have sought to gain seats in redistricting in seven states, including Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, California, Utah, and Virginia.