NEW: Tennessee Sen. Charlane Oliver and four of her constituents are suing the leaders of the Tennessee Senate in federal court.
In May, the legislature passed a congressional map that split majority-Black Memphis into three districts and eliminated the state's only majority-Black congressional district.
As the Senate voted, Oliver stood on her desk, sang "Lift Every Voice and Sing," and held a banner reading "No Jim Crow 2.0."
According to the complaint filed Monday, she then bent down and pressed her voting button twice, but her "no" vote never registered. The complaint says her button had been turned off intentionally.
Weeks later, Senate Speaker Randy McNally stripped her per diem pay outside session days, denied her travel reimbursement, and removed her from the Government Operations Committee. Per diem made up more than $14,500 of her roughly $57,000 in legislative pay in 2025, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs are Oliver, Rev. Dr. Judy Cummings, Shani Glapion, Quiteka Moten and Joshua Wesley. They are suing McNally, Chief Senate Clerk Russell Humphrey and Legislative Administration Director Krista Lee Carsner. They say the penalties violate Oliver's First Amendment rights and her constituents' Fourteenth Amendment right to equal representation. They are asking the court to reverse the penalties and correct the record to show her vote.
"When I stood on my Senate desk, I did it because the legislature swiftly moved to silence the voices of Black Tennesseans," Oliver said. "Punishing me for that speech punishes them."
McNally has called the protest "disgraceful" and defended the penalties as appropriate.
This story will be updated.
BWNCNews.com