Supreme Court rejects Missouri Republicans’ request to use new congressional map
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesdayrejected a last-ditch effort by Missouri Republicans to use a newly drawn congressional map, which was designed to maximize their political power, for this year’s midterm elections.
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In a brief order issued by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the court left in place a Missouri Supreme Court ruling from last week that said the map could not be used while a ballot initiative moves forward that could lead to the redrawn map being tossed out by voters. Kavanaugh handles emergency requests that arise from Missouri.
The 2025 Republican redistricting plan, part of a wave prompted by President Donald Trump, was designed to eliminate one of the state’s two Democratic-held seats, currently held by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.
But the Supreme Court’s decision means that the 2022 map, with six Republican-held seats and two Democratic-held seats, will remain in place.
The legal clash erupted after the 2025 redistricting plan was enacted.
A group called People Not Politicians Missouri, led by Richard von Glahn, gathered signatures in support of a state referendum that would veto the Legislature’s map while also putting it on hold for the 2026 election.
But Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, refused to put the measure on the ballot], arguing that redistricting plans are not subject to being overturned by voters.
The Missouri Supreme Court subsequently found that Hoskins should not have rejected the plan, unanimously concluding there is nothing in state law that says redistricting plans are exempt from the referendum process.
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The referendum petition was “legal, sufficient and timely,” the court found.
Under state law, whenever a proposed ballot initiative that overrides the Legislature is deemed valid, the law is automatically put on hold until after the people vote on it.
The court also noted that any confusion caused by its ruling was as a result of Hoskins’ delay in deciding whether the referendum could move forward. Hoskins waited until the last minute to reject the proposal ahead of an Aug. 4 deadline, and broke with the state’s typical process of putting a law facing a veto referendum on hold when enough signatures are submitted.
Hoskins argued at the Supreme Court that the state court ruling violated the U.S. Constitution’s elections clause, which he says delegates significant powers to state legislatures in overseeing elections. The Supreme Court rejected a similar argument in a redistricting case from North Carolina in 2023.
Hoskins’ lawyers told the justices that the state court ruling had created chaos because the new map was used in this year’s primary election. If the state has to revert to the old map, “hundreds of thousands of Missourians will see their votes in the primary election rendered pointless,” they wrote.
Lawyers for the referendum supporters said in court filings that Hoskins was seeking at the Supreme Court a “political victory to which he was never entitled under the Missouri Constitution.”
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