A Double Dose of Legal Chaos
Missouri’s congressional elections have been thrown into complete disarray. On Tuesday, two different courts issued conflicting rulings on which congressional map the state is allowed to use. The legal whiplash occurred on the very day of the state’s deadline to finalize ballots, leaving election officials in limbo with the first ballots scheduled to go out on September 19.
The day began with a major decision from Washington. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles emergency requests for the region, denied an appeal from Missouri Republicans. His order upheld a state Supreme Court ruling from last week, which blocked the state’s newly drawn congressional map. That block was put in place to allow a voter initiative to move forward, which could let residents reject the new boundaries entirely.
But the high court’s decision was not the final word. Just hours later, a federal judge in Missouri threw the entire process into reverse. U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark ruled in a separate case that the state actually must use the new map. He warned that reverting to the old lines would violate the federal constitutional rights of candidates and voters alike.
Despite the legal contradiction, top state officials quickly picked a side. Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe and Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, both Republicans, declared on social media on Tuesday night that the state would move forward using the newly redrawn map for the November midterms.
The Fight Over a Democratic Seat
At its core, this battle is about political survival and control. The 2025 Republican redistricting plan, which mirrors similar moves across the country, was drawn with a specific target in mind. It was designed to eliminate one of the state’s two Democratic-held congressional districts, currently represented by Congressman Emanuel Cleaver.
If the state Supreme Court’s ruling remains the law of the land, Missouri will have to fall back on its 2022 map. That older map splits the state’s delegation into six Republicans and two Democrats. Under the newer, contested map, Republicans would almost certainly expand their majority.
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The state-level legal battle was sparked by a grassroots movement. A group called People Not Politicians Missouri, led by Richard von Glahn, successfully collected enough signatures for a referendum. This initiative aims to let voters veto the Republican legislature’s redistricting plan. Under Missouri law, once such a petition is validated, the contested law is paused automatically until the public gets to vote on it.
However, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, refused to put the measure on the ballot. He argued that congressional redistricting plans are not subject to voter referendums. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected that argument in a unanimous decision, ruling that Hoskins had no right to block the initiative. The justices called the petition valid and timely, and they laid the blame for the current confusion at Hoskins’ feet, noting he waited until the last minute before an August deadline to reject the petition.
The Federal Counter-Argument
While state courts focused on local petition laws, a parallel fight erupted in federal court. Rick Brattin, a Republican congressional nominee running for Cleaver’s seat, teamed up with Representative Bob Onder and two voters to file a federal lawsuit. They claimed that switching maps at this late stage would violate the U.S. Constitution.
Because Missouri already used the new map during its August primaries, Judge Clark agreed that switching back to the 2022 boundaries for the general election would cause unprecedented chaos. He ruled that doing so would violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, as well as constitutional rules governing how House members are elected. Hundreds of thousands of voters would suddenly find themselves in completely different districts than the ones they voted in during the primaries.
In his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Hoskins had argued that the state court’s decision violated the federal Constitution’s elections clause, which grants state legislatures broad power over elections. However, the Supreme Court has previously rejected similar arguments, most notably in a high-profile North Carolina redistricting case in 2023.
With the September 19 mailing deadline looming, election officials are running out of time. Given the deep contradictions between the state and federal rulings, the issue seems destined to land right back on the U.S. Supreme Court’s docket very soon.
