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Supreme Court Blocks Missouri's New Gerrymandered Map for 2026 Elections
Confirmed
In Short: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that Missouri cannot use its new gerrymandered congressional map for this year's midterm elections.
The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed Friday that Missouri cannot use a gerrymandered congressional map for this year’s midterm elections, closing out a yearlong redistricting legal battle.
In a win for pro-voting groups, the Supreme Court’s ruling, which had no noted dissents, comes after Missouri has already sent ballots for the upcoming election to overseas and absentee voters using an older map.
Missouri’s redistricting battle came to a head this month after a federal district court and an appeals court ordered Missouri to use the gerrymandered 2025 map, which eliminates a Democratic district in Kansas City, for the upcoming election despite a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that it cannot take effect unless Missouri voters approve the map in a November referendum.
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled Sept. 3 that the new GOP gerrymander was not in effect, had never been in effect and will not go into effect unless approved by the voters in a November referendum.
The court in the unsigned opinion blasted Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) for creating unnecessary confusion about which map was in effect for the 2026 elections.
Missouri’s overseas and military voters have already received ballots using the 2022 congressional district lines.
This is the third time the high court has gotten involved to prevent congressional lines drawn to oust Congressman Emanuel Cleaver from going into effect.
The ruling means the state will now use the electoral map that was used in the 2022 elections, which includes six seats held by Republicans and two held by Democrats.
What this adds
The Supreme Court's decision underscores the ongoing legal challenges and confusion surrounding Missouri's redistricting process, highlighting the complexities involved in implementing new electoral maps.
Background
The Supreme Court could act at any time on a case involving Missouri's Republican-drawn 2025 congressional map, which is currently the subject of legal disputes.
The Supreme Court could act at any time on a case involving Missouri's Republican-drawn 2025 congressional map, which is currently the subject of legal disputes.
What's confirmed
- "The District Court and Court of Appeals should not enjoin or otherwise prohibit the use of the 2022 map in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri," the order states.
What's still developing
- “The Missouri Secretary of State was well aware that conducting the August primary election with the 2025 map carried significant risks,” the court wrote in its decision.
- “At this late date, ordering reversion to the 2025 map in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos,” the justices wrote.
- After that decision, Republican candidates in the election argued to a federal court that Missouri must use the new gerrymander in the general election because it already used that map in the August primary election.
- “The Eighth Circuit’s order does not merely undermine this Court’s stay order; it requires the district court to issue a permanent injunction granting the exact same relief this Court stayed in the exact same case,” the plaintiffs argued, adding that it appeared to be unprecedented for a federal court of appeals to order a district court to re-issue the same relief that the U.S. Supreme Court had already temporarily blocked. *The Elias Law Group (ELG) represents the pro-voting parties in this case.
- “The Secretary nonetheless chose to proceed with the 2025 map for the primary.” The justices also went on to criticize the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals for incorrectly applying a federal court doctrine about last-minute changes on the eve of an election — an error that only exacerbated the last-minute confusion.
- The unsigned order drew no noted dissents, with the justices making clear that lower courts should neither prohibit use of Missouri ’s 2022 map nor require the state to use the 2025 map.
- The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday blocked an attempt to implement a President Donald Trump-backed congressional map aimed at netting Republicans another seat in the U.S. House.
- Simultaneously with that process, though, Republicans sued in federal court and won backing for the GOP map from a federal judge and then, last week, a federal appeals court.
- The group behind the redistricting referendum, People Not Politicians, appealed the 8th Circuit's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the appeals court overstepped its bounds by ordering Judge Stephen Clark to issue a permanent injunction.
- People Not Politicians attorney Abha Khanna wrote in her emergency appeal that commanding Missouri to use the 2025 map when election officials were told to use the 2022 map would cause chaos, since early voting and military voting are already underway.
- "According to local election officials in Missouri: 'At this point, it is practically impossible to revert to the' 2025 'map.'" With the 8th Circuit's decision blocked, the Missouri Supreme Court's ruling barring the use of the 2025 map is the only judicial order in effect.
- And, barring more legal challenges, the Supreme Court's action could shut the door this year on efforts to use the map designed to defeat the Kansas City Democrat.