Plaintiffs' Complaint (Oliver v. McNally)

On September 28, 2026, on behalf of Tennessee state Senator Charlane Oliver and her constituents, Campaign Legal Center Action, the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, and Barrett Johnston Martin & Garrison, PLLC filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging unlawful punishments imposed on Senator Oliver in retaliation for her speech against Tennessee’s new, gerrymandered congressional map. Those punishments violate Senator Oliver’s First Amendment right to be free from retaliation for her speech, her First Amendment right to free association, and the Fourteenth Amendment rights of her constituents to equal representation. They also violate the Tennessee Constitution’s requirement that any punishment against a legislator be issued by their chamber as a whole, not at the whim of one or more of its officers.