Supreme Court emergency intervention

The US Supreme Court on Thursday issued an order blocking Missouri from using a newly redrawn congressional map that favored Republicans for the 3 November midterm elections. The decision was handed down through a brief order without noted dissents or detailed legal reasoning. The justices granted an emergency application filed on Wednesday by redistricting opponents and civil groups after days of conflicting state and federal court orders. The ruling requires Missouri to conduct the general election under the electoral map approved in 2022 while broader litigation proceeds through the court system. The determination arrived just days before election officials begin mailing ballots to voters across the state.

Conflicting state and federal rulings

The dispute escalated after Missouri's state and federal courts issued opposing directives within hours of each other. The Missouri Supreme Court determined last week that the redrawn map never legally took effect because citizen groups gathered hundreds of thousands of petition signatures in December to force a statewide referendum. On Tuesday evening, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who oversees emergency petitions from the state, rejected a request from the Trump administration to enforce the redrawn boundaries, deferring to the state high court. Minutes later, Chief US District Judge Stephen R. Clark in St. Louis ruled in a separate lawsuit brought by a Republican congressman and a primary candidate, barring the state from using any map other than the new design.

Contempt proceedings against state officials

Following Judge Clark's federal ruling, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins directed county election boards to print ballots using the new boundaries. The Missouri Supreme Court responded by ordering Hoskins to appear at a contempt hearing on Thursday for defying its instruction to maintain the 2022 districts. State attorneys representing Hoskins requested that Judge Clark intervene to halt the state contempt proceedings, but Clark declined to stop the hearing. Opponents of the redrawn map appealed Clark's underlying ruling directly to the US Supreme Court on Wednesday to resolve the jurisdictional clash between the state and federal judiciaries.

2022 map6

Redrawn proposal7

2022 map

6 seats

Redrawn proposal

7 seats

Data from the article text

House balance and the Kansas City district

Missouri was the second Republican-controlled state after Texas to enact new congressional lines following calls from Donald Trump last year to maximize party seats before the midterm elections. Under the 2022 map, Missouri's eight House seats were divided into six Republican districts and two Democratic districts. The redrawn proposal altered the boundaries of the Kansas City district held by Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver, distributing portions of his urban constituency into neighboring rural areas to create a 7-1 Republican advantage. Although election officials used the new boundaries during the August primaries after Hoskins delayed certifying the citizen referendum petitions, the Supreme Court's order ensures the November general election takes place under the 2022 lines.