DAVIDSON COUNTY — Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti's office filed a response Friday in Davidson County Chancery Court asking the court to deny the NAACP Tennessee chapter's emergency petition to block the state's newly enacted congressional map from taking effect before the 2026 election. The filing argued that the lawsuit fails to identify imminent harm and that key state officials are immune from the suit.

The NAACP Tennessee State Conference and its president, Gloria Sweet-Love, filed the emergency petition on May 7, seeking to stop the redrawn U.S. House district map signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee. The new map carved up the state's only majority-Black, majority-Democrat district in Memphis.

State attorneys contended that the governor and the Tennessee General Assembly do not conduct elections, have sovereign immunity, and are immune from the suit. The filing said that with recent changes to qualifying requirements, the state has relaxed barriers to becoming a candidate, so plaintiffs can assert no imminent harm from the expanded candidate pool. The state also wrote that the lawsuit does not provide evidence of election administration problems.

The Tennessee Legislature's Republican supermajority proposed and passed the new map in a three-day special session called by Lee at President Donald Trump's instruction. The special session followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision that weakened part of the Voting Rights Act. To pass the new map, legislators repealed a Tennessee law that forbade mid-decade redistricting.

The state argued the repeal was lawful because it was covered under the special session's purpose of making statutory changes necessary to redraw congressional districts. The NAACP's lawsuit argues that Lee did not specifically state that the special session's purpose included repealing the mid-decade redistricting law. The lawsuit also challenged a provision that suspends residency requirements for candidates in the newly drawn districts, stating it was not included in Lee's proclamation.

The Division of Elections has begun implementing the new plan for the 2026 election, including changes to districts and candidate qualifying and residency requirements. The state pointed to Purcell v. Gonzalez, a 2006 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court decided rules should not be changed too close to an election to avoid confusion. Opponents of the redrawn maps also cite the Purcell Principle in arguments that the new map should not be implemented for the 2026 election.

The lawsuit's proceedings are on pause while the Tennessee Supreme Court determines whether it will convene a three-judge panel to handle the case. The state hired three attorneys from the Arlington, Virginia-based law firm Consovoy McCarthy to work on the case.