Missouri Republican Redistricting Likely Headed Back to Supreme Court After Circuit Court Greenlights New Map

Groups seeking to block a new redistricted congressional map in Missouri were dealt a setback on Monday after a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Republicans’ new map must be used. The decision is expected to reach the Supreme Court on appeal in the coming days.Lawmakers in Missouri redrew their state’s congressional map last year at the explicit request of President Trump, who asked a number of GOP-led states to begin eliminating some of their blue districts. As of Monday, Republicans have shifted around ten seats across the country in their favor over the course of the redistricting war. The case out of Missouri is an especially complex one, with dueling decisions being handed down in federal court and in the state’s supreme court. The Missouri supreme court previously ruled that the map was implemented illegally — a decision that Justice Brett Kavanaugh declined to block when Republicans appealed that case to the Supreme Court. On the same day Justice Kavanaugh declined to block the state supreme court’s ruling, a federal district court judge ruled that the new Republican redistricting must be used for this year’s elections. The map would almost certainly eliminate one of the state’s two heavily Democratic districts. That federal case was then appealed to the Eighth Circuit after the full Supreme Court again sided with the anti-redistricting group that had sued to stop the implementation of the map. On Monday afternoon, the three-judge panel — made up of one nominee of President George H.W. Bush and two nominees of Mr. Trump — ruled unanimously that the new map has to be used. “Missouri conducted virtually all of its 2026 congressional district elections to date under the 2025 map,” the circuit court wrote in its decision. “A congressional primary selects the candidates who will compete to represent a particular district, and the general election determines which of those candidates will represent that same district.”The judges write that Article I of the Constitution guarantees the “right to participate in the procedure of choosing a member of Congress” in a way that “requires continuity in the constituency throughout all stages of a single election.”“Changing district lines between the primary and general election prevents an affected voter from participating in either district’s complete procedure of choice,” the judges wrote. The court issued its order with a one-week grace period before their order functionally takes effect in order to give the anti-redistricting group, People Not Politicians, the ability to appeal the Eighth Circuit’s ruling to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court’s decision, which will likely come within a matter of days, given the closeness of the midterms, will almost certainly be the final say on the matter. Missouri began sending out some of its mail ballots on Friday with the assumption that the original map with two heavily Democratic seats would be used. Should the Supreme Court side with the Eighth Circuit, election officials will have to begin sending out new ballots reflecting the district lines of the new map. If the new Republican redistricting is allowed to take effect, 28 of Missouri’s 114 counties will have to modify their ballots, given those counties are all impacted by the redrawing of the maps.Correction: Brett Kavanaugh is the name of the Supreme Court justice who declined to block a ruling by the Missouri supreme court overturning a GOP-friendly districting map. An earlier version misspelled the justice’s first name.

Missouri Republican Redistricting Likely Headed Back to Supreme Court After Circuit Court Greenlights New Map

Missouri Republican Redistricting Likely Headed Back to Supreme Court After Circuit Court Greenlights New Map

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