The Tennessee Supreme Court vacated a lower court’s judgment that a 2022 state Senate map was unconstitutional, ruling that a voter in an improperly numbered Davidson County district lacked standing to challenge the map.
The ruling also upheld a lower court’s decision that declared the 2022 House redistricting map was constitutional.
The rulings were the latest development in a lengthy legal battle over the maps that has spanned multiple courts since state lawmakers approved the new districts after the most recent U.S. census.
Francie Hunt, executive director of Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood, sought an expedited ruling from the state Supreme Court in 2023 for her challenge against the new Senate districts. She lives in a part of Davidson County that was placed into Senate District 17 along with the entirety of Wilson County in the redistricted Senate map.
Hunt challenged the Senate plan because it numbered Davidson County’s four Senate districts out of compliance with a constitutional rule that districts in multi-district counties must be numbered consecutively.