NFL tabs Nashville for Super Bowl LXIV tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/19/n... @tennesseelookout.com

Tony Carruthers’ sister told the Banner Monday that she believed in her brother’s innocence in 1994 and she still believes in it now. As advocates call for DNA and fingerprint analysis, Tennessee is set to execute Carruthers on Thursday. ✒️: @iamstevenhale.bsky.social

Thousands of people joined demonstrations in Selma and Montgomery on Saturday to protest redistricting by southern Republican state legislatures targeting Black Democratic members of Congress. From @alabamareflector.com.

There are 4 legal challenges to Tennessee's redistricting process, carving up Memphis/Shelby Co The 3 lawsuits in federal court have now been consolidated into one, before Judge William Campbell, a Trump nominee. A hearing in a 4th, in state court, set for Thurs tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/19/t...

If NFL owners pick Nashville for Super Bowl '30, it may be awhile before the public learns details of the deal. In 2024, Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation keeping Super Bowl-related contracts secret until a tourism department spends money tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/19/r... @tennesseelookout.com

More than 100,000 children separated from their parents during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown -- roughly three-quarters of those children are likely U.S. citizens, according to estimates from the Brookings Institution www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/u...

From opinion columnist Betsy Phillips: Knox County Schools just removed 'Roots' from its shelves after an anonymous complaint — 'Roots' was named one of our state books just two years ago.

Election officials move quickly after redistricting process to adjust districts for August primary in Tennessee tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/18/e... @cstephenson.bsky.social @tennesseelookout.com

Cohen said he weighed a potentially grueling and difficult campaign in redrawn district, making his final decision this am to bow out “I just thought it was an uphill battle, and it would be physically demanding, and it would probably be a dirty campaign" tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/15/l...

NEW: U.S. Rep Steve Cohen, who has represented Memphis in District 9 for 19 years, won't run in new gerrymandered districts. "Last week, Tennessee Republicans silenced the Black vote here in Memphis to make Republican victories likely,” Cohen wrote Friday. tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/15/l...

Longtime US Rep. Cohen announces he won't run in Tennessee’s gerrymandered districts "These districts were drawn to beat me," he said. tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/15/l... @tennesseelookout.com

Bill to Designate entire Duck River as Class II Pastoral State Scenic River www.columbiadailyherald.com/story/news/2...

The redistricting frenzy is scrambling the midterm elections. Here’s where things stand now. tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/15/r... @acvollers.bsky.social @tennesseelookout.com

“Tennessee lawmakers made a deliberate choice to silence Black voters...We are at the dawn of a new Jim Crow era. People fought and died for the representation that lawmakers across the South are so casually eroding" - Derrick Johnson/NAACP tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/14/n... @tennesseelookout.com

There is a statue of author Alex Haley in East Knoxville, TN. Knox County just removed Roots from all school libraries.

4th Tennessee redistricting lawsuit, from NAACP & LOWV: “Put simply, the General Assembly, several times with(in) the past ten years…has considered it its mission to preserve symbols of white supremacy and to honor those who considered Black persons inferior" tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/14/n...

Mississippi will not redraw any of its electoral districts this month. Gov. Tate Reeves canceled a special legislative session to redistrict the state’s Supreme Court map. But he vowed that the state's only Black Democratic congressman's "reign of terror" will be over soon.

Challengers seek restraining orders for new voting map ahead of court hearings as May 15 U.S. House candidate qualifying and withdrawal deadline approaches. From Cassandra Stephenson: tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/14/c...

Fourth lawsuit filed challenging Tennessee's redistricting

Doctors accused of inseminating their patients with their own sperm — without consent — rarely face legal consequences. While dozens of cases have become public across the U.S., few perpetrators have faced criminal charges or were forced to stop practicing. From @civilbeat.bsky.social:

ICYMI: Tennessee’s Republican House speaker is punishing Democratic representatives who protested the redrawn congressional map during the recent special session by stripping them from all standing committees and subcommittees. From Sam Stockard: tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/13/t...

Crucially, no video of the shooting has emerged. In similar cases — including the three other ICE shootings in Minnesota during Metro Surge — video evidence revealed the government narrative to be false.

ACLU lawsuit: ‘Startling pattern’ of 1A violations by Memphis Safe Task Force against bystanders recording them: Assault, arrest, swerving cars at observers, making threats, tailing them home, taunting them by name, shining lights at phones to obscure filming... tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/14/a...

Nashville’s sheriff says he’s exempt from legislation mandating agreements with ICE That might have been news to the bill's GOP sponsor, whose response was the legislation “is intended to apply to all Tennessee county law enforcement and sheriff’s agencies" tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/13/n...

Voter confusion, campaign chaos cited in NAACP’s updated lawsuit over Tennessee redistricting It is one of 3 legal challenges to the state's newly drawn maps, which divide majority-Black, majority-Democrat Memphis into 3 tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/13/v... @cstephenson.bsky.social

“This is about power and control. When Democrats stand up, speak out and expose what is happening in this chamber, the response from this supermajority is retaliation.” - Tennessee House Minority Leader Karen Camper tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/13/t... @tennesseelookout.com

Tennessee’s Republican House speaker has barred all 24 House Democrats from standing committees and subcommittees as punishment for decorum violations, including locking arms on the floor in protest of a redrawn congressional map, writes Sam Stockard: tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/13/t...

Tennessee’s new 9th District draws two state Republican candidates vying for a U.S. House seat tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/12/t... @tennesseelookout.com

Just in from Sam Stockard: Two Tennessee Republican state lawmakers, Rep. Todd Warner and Sen. Brent Taylor, have announced a Congressional run in Tennessee’s newly Redrawn 9th District tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/12/t...

A Trump administration policy threatening indefinite immigrant detention has been struck down by 3 appeals courts, which could soon be joined by a fourth, but upheld by 2 others. The U.S. Supreme Court will likely decide. Tim Henderson reports for @stateline.org: tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/12/r...

Judge sets 5/20 hearing in redistricting suit by Democrats, one of 3 suits challenging redrawn lines that split Memphis in 3 Hearing is set 5 days after the 3/15 candidate qualifying deadline & lawyers filed an emergency motion seeking a more immediate ruling tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/12/f...

Tennessee judges could be ousted if they don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities under a new law signed by Gov. Bill Lee. The law doesn’t clearly define what actions would be considered obstructive. From @anitawadhwani.bsky.social: tennesseelookout.com/briefs/tenne...

A third lawsuit has just dropped challenging Tennessee's newly redrawn Congressional districts splitting a majority-Black district in Memphis into three.

State attorneys say Gov. Bill Lee and the Tennessee Legislature are ‘immune’ to a lawsuit filed by the NAACP Tennessee Conference challenging redrawn U.S. House district maps that eliminated a majority-Black, majority-Democrat district in Memphis. tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/11/s...

With Tennessee set to execute Tony Carruthers on May 21, his attorneys are arguing not only that forensic testing might prove his innocence, but that his death sentence was based on an inflammatory and false claim that the victims in the case were buried alive. ✍️ @iamstevenhale.bsky.social

It was quite a week in Tennessee last week. Photojournalist John Partipilo captured the week in photos.

Democratic candidates, voters file federal challenge to Tennessee’s redistricting It's the second legal challenge to a new U.S.House district map the Tennessee GOP supermajority put into place yesterday. The Tennessee NAACP filed a legal challenge Thursday. tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/08/d...

On a historic day in Tennessee, where the GOP eliminated the state's only majority Black/majority Democrat Congressional district, Democrats delivered impassioned speeches invoking ancestors, Jim Crow & the long struggle for civil rights in Memphis tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/08/t...

All hell breaks loose as Tennessee lawmakers bust up Memphis tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/08/s... @tennesseelookout.com

NAACP Tennessee files lawsuit challenging redrawn US House district map tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/07/n... Story: @cstephenson.bsky.social @tennesseelookout.com

“This map diminishes Memphis. Racism doesn’t become less racist just because it’s called partisan" -- Tennessee State Sen. London Lamar, a Memphis Democrat tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/07/t... @tennesseelookout.com

Keshaun Pearson, brother of Memphis Rep. Justin Pearson, was arrested in the Tennessee House gallery for apparently protesting. Photos by John Partipilo.

“We are the luckiest bastards alive,” he says of living in Marblehead. “We can’t also be the most self-interested bastards alive. They can’t be the same thing.” www.marbleheadindependent.com/he-asked-if-...

“I was here when we first fought with the Department of Justice to get this district drawn so that the African American minority could win it. It hurts my heart, at almost 81 years old, to see us lose this again." mlk50.com/2026/05/06/i... @mlk50.com

T.J. Hardway appointed to take the Tennessee seat representing parts of Memphis that his father, state Rep. G.A. Hardaway, held for nearly two decades. G.A. Hardaway died late last month after a short illness tennesseelookout.com/briefs/t-j-h... @tennesseelookout.com

The Tennessee GOP's redistricting plan comes with a compressed timeline and reduced public notice requirements that opponents say will cause confusion for voters and a burden for local election officials tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/07/b... @cstephenson.bsky.social @tennesseelookout.com

As the Tennessee GOP rejiggers the U.S. House map to eliminate the state's only Democrat-majority district in Memphis, they may create new vulnerabilities for their party in other districts. From @friedmanadam5.bsky.social tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/07/v... @tennesseelookout.com

Alabama Legislature is meeting on redistricting; we are under a tornado watch, and it’s flooding in the building. These metaphors are too on the nose.

More details from my colleague Sam Stockard on Tennessee Republicans' plan for a three-way split of Memphis/Shelby County House district. tennesseelookout.com/2026/05/06/t... @tennesseelookout.com

Nearly two years after his phone was confiscated amid a campaign finance investigation — and after a change in the White House — U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles announced in a news release that his phone had been returned and that materials taken from it had been destroyed. From @friedmanadam5.bsky.social.