In an unexpected decision last June, Allen v. Milligan, the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) upheld Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and ruled that Alabama’s 2021 congressional map illegally diluted the voting power of Black Alabamians. Following SCOTUS’s ruling, Alabama defied the court’s order in an attempt to continue disempowering Black residents.

NASHVILLE – The League of Women Voters of Tennessee and Tennessee voters Victor Ashe and Phil Lawson filed a federal lawsuit today challenging state laws that require voters to be “bona fide” members of a political party to vote in the state’s open primary elections. Plaintiffs argue that the laws create confusion and intimidation because voters in Tennessee do not register with a party and there is no way to determine what “bona fide” means. The plaintiffs are represented by the law firms Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, Baker Donelson and Sidley Austin LLP, and Protect Democracy.