The Supreme Court was urged on Wednesday to restore a previous Missouri congressional map for the November election, after a messy legal fight over the past week in state and federal courts made its way back to the high court.
The left-wing group People Not Politicians, which successfully fought to put a Missouri congressional map passed in 2025 up for a referendum in November, filed an emergency petition to the high court asking the justices to halt a lower court order which required Missouri to use the 2025 congressional map this year, which would likely net Republicans a seat in the House, for the November election.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled last week that the 2025 map should face a referendum and the congressional map passed in 2022, which was used in the 2022 and 2024 elections, should be used in the November election. Missouri officials appealed the state Supreme Court ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court and separately filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to reinstate the 2025 map, which had already been used for the primary election in August, for the November general election. Justice Brett Kavanaugh declined to halt the state Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday, but at roughly the same time, a federal judge ruled in favor of Missouri officials, creating a tangle of conflicting rulings.
People Not Politicians appealed the federal district court’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, but after the 8th Circuit declined to halt the district court’s order, the group went to the Supreme Court. The emergency petition filed to the high court asks the justices to reverse the “new and clear conflict with federal law” caused by the order instructing state officials to use the 2025 map.
“A federal district court cannot transform an unlawfully administered primary into a federal constitutional command that the State continue violating its own law through the general election. And the district court’s legally baseless [temporary restraining order] must not be permitted to detonate in the middle of Missouri’s congressional elections to blow up the clear and careful ruling of the Missouri Supreme Court and the fundamental rights of Missouri voters,” the emergency petition from People Not Politicians said.
HOW MISSOURI REDISTRICTING TURNED INTO A LEGAL MESS
The Supreme Court requested a response from Missouri officials by 10 a.m. Thursday, as deadlines for sending out ballots for the November election rapidly approach. There is no timeline for the high court to issue a decision on the emergency petition, but a ruling is expected as soon as Thursday.
Which congressional map Missouri is allowed to use for the November election could be pivotal in the hotly contested House elections. If the 2022 map is used, the Missouri congressional delegation will likely be split 6-2 Republicans to Democrats, whereas if the 2025 map is used, the Show Me State’s congressional delegation will likely be split 7-1 Republicans to Democrats.