Supreme Court blocks Trump-backed Missouri congressional map, forcing revert to 2022 districts for November midterms

The U.S. Supreme Court blocked a Trump-backed Missouri congressional map from being used in the November midterms, ending a monthslong redistricting war. The new map had already been used in the August primaries. Missouri will instead hold its congressional elections under the same district boundaries used in 2022 and 2024, adopted after the last census.

The court issued an unsigned opinion. There were no noted dissents. Absentee voting was already underway using the old districts when the justices ruled, and the court warned that switching maps now would be disruptive. This is the third time the high court has blocked the redistricting plan.

The timeline of conflicting orders was tortuous. The Missouri Supreme Court had said in May, before the primary, that the GOP map would require voter approval before it could be used. Opponents of the new map gathered citizen signatures to put it to a vote on the November ballot. Hoskins waited until the legal deadline on 4 August to reject the referendum petition, asserting that referendum petitions are not allowed for congressional redistricting. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled on 3 September that the referendum petition was valid and ordered Hoskins to use the 2022 districts. The justices let that state ruling stand on 8 September, but minutes later U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark issued a conflicting order favoring the new map. On 10 September, the high court blocked Clark’s order from taking effect, declining to intervene in the state court’s ruling while allowing the case to continue. That same day, the Missouri Supreme Court held Hoskins in temporary contempt for telling local election authorities to use the new map after Clark’s ruling. The Eighth Circuit then ruled Monday in favor of the new map, directing a district judge to bar Missouri from using anything other than the new map but delaying the order’s effect until the following Monday. That sent the case back to the Supreme Court, which ruled Friday against Republican lawmakers. “At this late date, ordering reversion to the 2025 map in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos,” the high court wrote.

What the map would have changed

The map aimed at helping Republicans win an additional House seat. Republicans currently hold six of Missouri’s eight House districts. Republicans hold only a few seats’ advantage in the House. Missouri lawmakers passed the new map at the urging of Trump and Governor Mike Kehoe. The redraw was part of a nationwide GOP redistricting strategy that tilted about nine or 10 more districts their way, including Missouri’s fifth district. The redistricting significantly reshaped the Kansas City-based district held by Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, shedding parts of Kansas City to neighboring districts with Republican incumbents and stretching the remainder of his fifth district far eastward into rural Republican areas. About 59% of potential voters were new to the district under the new map, according to an Associated Press estimate. The ripple effects were statewide. More than a million potential Missouri voters, nearly one in four, were shifted from one district to another.

November fallout

Rick Brattin and Cleaver remain the candidates for the general election despite district boundaries reverting. Brattin won a six-way Republican primary under the revised districts, while Cleaver was unopposed in the Democratic primary. Brattin was a plaintiff, along with Republican Congressman Bob Onder and two other voters, in the federal lawsuit that led to the Eighth Circuit’s ruling. The new map survived most lawsuits, including ones contending mid-decade redistricting violated the state constitution and that the new districts ran afoul of compactness requirements. At least 16 lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts over the redistricting. Missouri’s battle has been the longest and most complex among roughly a dozen states that sought to change their U.S. House districts over the past year. Some local election officials had urged voters to wait because of the legal uncertainty.