The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a Republican push to use Missouri congressional maps backed by President Donald Trump for the upcoming midterm elections, according to court records reported by CNBC. The brief order, which featured no noted dissents, clears the way for the state to use older district maps passed after the previous census.
Supreme Court Decision and Missouri Redistricting Battle
The Supreme Court’s action arrived shortly before ballots are scheduled to go out for the November elections, bringing an end to a pitched court battle over the state’s congressional districts. According to CNBC, the legal fight has spanned more than a year and created widespread confusion regarding which districts apply to voters. The newly drawn map was designed to help Republicans gain an additional seat in the House of Representatives, targeting a Kansas City-based seat currently held by Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver by shifting parts into neighboring districts and stretching the remainder into rural Republican areas.
Contempt Hearing and Legal Clashes
Hours prior to the Supreme Court order, a federal judge allowed the Missouri Supreme Court to proceed with a contempt hearing concerning Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, as reported by CNBC. The state’s highest court previously ordered Hoskins to avoid using the Trump-backed map in the general election and instead rely on districts established after the last census. However, U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark issued a conflicting order barring Hoskins from using anything other than the new map supported by Trump. Although state attorneys asked Clark to halt the contempt hearing, the federal judge declined to intervene, according to CNBC.
Referendum Petitions and Primary Election Timeline
Missouri represents the second Republican-led state, following Texas, to enact new districts after Trump urged Republicans last year to redraw House districts to their advantage ahead of the midterms. Opponents of the redistricting collected hundreds of thousands of petition signatures to force a statewide vote on the new districts, submitting them in December. According to CNBC, Hoskins waited until August—coinciding with Missouri’s primary—to reject the petition on the grounds that a referendum petition cannot apply to congressional redistricting. This delay enabled the state to use the new districts in the August primary, while Republican state officials argued that switching districts before the general election would violate voters’ federal rights.
State Court Rulings and Final Map Implementation
The Missouri Supreme Court ordered Hoskins to place the redistricting referendum on the November ballot, a directive he fulfilled. According to CNBC, the state court also ruled that the new districts never officially became law and were retroactively suspended to the date of the December petition submission. After the state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state court’s findings, Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected the request. While the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal regarding the use of the 2022 maps passed by Republican lawmakers, Thursday’s order solidifies that the older districts must govern the upcoming November election.