WASHINGTON — For the third time, the Supreme Court Friday ended efforts by Missouri Republicans to use a new congressional map in the midterm elections already underway.
The court blocked an appeals court ruling that sought to revive the 2025 map despite two previous Supreme Court rulings and a Missouri Supreme Court decision that ruled against Republicans on the same issue. There was no dissent.
“At this late date, ordering a return to the 2025 map in the middle of ongoing elections would result in electoral chaos,” the judgment said.
In doing so, the judges granted an emergency request filed by People Not Politicians, the group challenging the new map.
“We are done with corrupt politicians trying to force their map into effect outside of the process outlined in the Missouri Constitution,” Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, said in a statement. “We have said from the beginning that people, not politicians, will ultimately decide this takeover in Washington. »
The election will be held on a 2022 map that includes six seats held by Republicans and two by Democrats. The state has already started mailing ballots to military and overseas voters, and some mail-in voting began Tuesday.
The high court cited the fact that Missouri had already begun its voting processes.
“This Court has repeatedly cautioned that lower federal courts should not ‘alter the election rules’ of a state ‘on the eve of an election,’” the ruling said. “The elections are not only coming: they have already started. »
The proposed 2025 map would have eliminated one of the Democratic seats, held by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.
The Missouri map was part of a nationwide campaign by Republicans at the request of President Donald Trump to draw new congressional districts that would favor their candidates. Democrats in other states, including California, also responded by drawing new maps.
Cleaver told NBC News in a brief phone call Friday that he was “very pleased” with the decision and relieved that the matter would be settled for November.
“It lasted way too long, but it’s over now,” Cleaver said. “The manufactured chaos, you know, is finally over, has reached its final state, and we can move on. »
Cleaver said his campaign will now work to get the message out to voters ahead of the midterm elections to clear up their confusion after the status of their congressional districts bounced between the courts this year.
The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the Republican-drawn map of Missouri could be used, but it never took effect. Tuesday’s ruling by the Supreme Court overturns this decision.
The appeals court had ruled that the state had to use the 2025 map in part because the primary election had already been held with that map. But in a conflicting ruling, the Missouri Supreme Court said the 2022 map must be used, while clarifying that Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, was to blame for the confusion.
The state’s high court ultimately found Hoskins in contempt of his actions.
In Friday’s ruling, the Supreme Court wrote that Hoskins “was fully aware that conducting the August primary election with the 2025 map carried significant risks,” citing a May opinion from the state’s high court that clarified that the new map would not take effect until after the 2026 election.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, said in an article on
“Voters deserve consistency and certainty, not that the rules be changed between elections,” Kehoe wrote. “Nonetheless, Missouri will follow the Court’s order.”
The legal battle began after opponents of the new map obtained enough signatures to trigger a national referendum on its use. Under state law, whenever a state law is put to a referendum, it is suspended until the vote is complete.
But Hoskins delayed a decision on the legitimacy of the referendum until the eve of the primaries. He rejected the proposal and ordered the use of the new map.
The Missouri Supreme Court then quickly ruled that there was no reason to reject the referendum proposal and that, with the question going to voters in November, the map should be suspended and 2022 districts used instead.
The litigation appeared to be over until a new lawsuit was filed Sept. 4 by Rick Brattin, the Republican candidate in the district held by Cleaver, along with Rep. Bob Onder, R-Mo., and two electors.
That brought the fight to federal court, where Missouri-based U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark ruled that the new map must be used. This decision ultimately led to the decision of the Court of Appeal and the intervention of the Supreme Court.
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