The Supreme Court on Friday prevented Missouri from using a congressional map backed by President Trump in November's election, finding that changing the districts while ballots are already in voters' hands would cause disorder. It was the third time the court has stopped the map.
Document in this story · Free to read
"At this late date, ordering reversion to the 2025 map in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos," the court wrote in an unsigned opinion. The justices instructed lower courts not to block the use of the 2022 map or to force Missouri to use the 2025 map.
The court reasoned based on the calendar. It cited a brief from Missouri county clerks and election officials that ballots printed and mailed under the old map are in the mail and that voting by absentee, military and overseas voters is already underway. Local officials told the court that it is effectively impossible to switch back now.
The 2026 congressional elections in Missouri will be held under the same districts as in 2022 and 2024, even though the primaries in August were held under the new map.
Missouri Republicans approved the map last year under pressure from Trump as part of a nationwide effort to rejigger seats in advance of the midterm elections that ultimately added about nine or 10 Republican districts. The party currently holds a slim majority in the House.
The map was drawn with Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver in mind, who has represented the 5th District since 2005. It split up parts of Kansas City, putting them in neighboring Republican-held districts and pushing the rest of the district east to rural areas, changing the district so that about 59 percent of likely voters were newcomers, according to an AP estimate.
Cleaver was unopposed in the Democratic primary. Republican state Sen. Rick Brattin, who won a six-way Republican primary under the new map, is one of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit. Both are still on the ballot, running in the old district boundaries.
The map was placed on the ballot in November as a referendum after enough citizens signed a petition to challenge it. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the petition meant the 2025 map was never in force, criticizing Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins for using it for the Aug. 4 primaries anyway. The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 10 refused to upset that decision.
Republicans filed a separate lawsuit in federal court and were successful. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that switching districts between primary and general election would violate the Constitution and ordered a district judge to prevent Missouri from using anything other than the new map. It postponed its order until Monday to give time for an appeal.
Attorney Abha Khanna, who represents the group People Not Politicians, argued in an emergency filing that compelling the 2025 map on officials who have been told to use the 2022 map would itself create chaos.
Since the 8th Circuit's order has been blocked, the only court order in place is the one from the Missouri Supreme Court, meaning Cleaver is expected to hold onto his seat.
Missouri Republicans had argued that the 2025 map should take precedence because more than a million Missourians voted under it in August. Challengers said that voters never approved the map and that state officials had dragged their feet over its approval.
The ruling effectively ends the push to use the map this election cycle unless another legal challenge is filed.
