Legal battle over redistricting

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a federal judge’s order requiring Missouri to use a gerrymandered congressional map in November, putting the state back on course to conduct the election using districts drawn in 2022, according to the Missouri Independent. In a one-page order, the court granted an emergency request from a political action committee called People Not Politicians and its executive director, Richard von Glahn, to stay a temporary restraining order issued Tuesday by Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark in St. Louis.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles emergency matters from Missouri, referred the request to the full court. The unsigned order did not disclose the vote or explain the court’s reasoning, and no justice publicly dissented. In a hearing before the state Supreme Court Thursday morning, an attorney representing Secretary of State Denny Hoskins said unless some other federal court says otherwise, the intent is to conduct the November election using the 2022 map.

Unusual legal maneuvering

Thursday’s ruling is the latest turn in a legal fight that has bounced between the Missouri Supreme Court, a federal district judge, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court in the span of a week, according to the Missouri Independent. Its immediate effect is to revive a unanimous Missouri Supreme Court ruling from Sept. 3 that found the gerrymandered 2025 congressional map never took effect because it was suspended by a valid referendum petition.

The state court ordered Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to place the referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot as Proposition A and conduct this year’s congressional election using the map adopted in 2022. Meanwhile, according to Courthouse News, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins fought the petition seeking to implement the gerrymandered map for the upcoming midterm election. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Donald Trump appointee, quashed an emergency appeal from Hoskins earlier this week, but a conflicting lower court ruling sent the case back to the Supreme Court.

Political implications

Trump ignited a nationwide rush to redraw congressional maps outside of the normal 10-year redistricting cycle last year. Missouri’s new maps were drawn to give Republicans seven of the state’s eight seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to Courthouse News. Redistricting opponents submitted over 300,000 petition signatures to put the map to a vote. Hoskins rejected them, asserting that Missouri’s Constitution doesn’t allow referendum petitions on congressional redistricting.

He successfully defended his decision in a lower court but lost in front of the state’s highest court. The Missouri Supreme Court said the referendum petition effectively suspended the new districts, retroactive to last December, pending voter approval. Although the new districts were used in the August primary, Missouri’s top court said the previous districts enacted after the 2020 census must be used in the general election.