Officials say they’re not especially concerned about how a major U.S. Supreme Court decision could affect redistricting for local Hamilton County and Chattanooga elected seats.
The 6-3 decision, made in late April, carves out Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a cornerstone of the Civil Rights Movement. Before the decision, someone could prove racial discrimination in the way district maps were drawn based on results showing a consistent lack of representation. Now, anyone who wants to challenge a map in court has to prove that the map makers had intentionally drawn legislative districts to disadvantage a racial group — something the three dissenting judges argued was nearly impossible to do.
The decision stands for state maps as a handful of states, including Tennessee, redraw congressional districts based on the court ruling. But it also applies to county and city maps for district-based seats on bodies like city councils, school boards and county commissions.
City and county governments are required to meet and decide whether to redistrict at the beginning of every decade, after census data is released. A Tennessee comptroller’s guide for local governments, written in 2021, says any government body going through the redistricting process needs to be aware of legal precedent surrounding minority representation, including how the Voting Rights Act has been used.
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