SCOTUS rejects Missouri GOP bid to use revised congressional map in midterms
Supreme Court Leaves Missouri’s 2022 Congressional Map in Place for 2026 Election
In a quiet Tuesday hearing, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected Missouri’s emergency appeal, keeping the state’s high court decision that bars the new GOP‑backed congressional map from being used in November’s general election. The ruling means voters will cast ballots in the districts that were in effect after the 2022 election, rather than in a map that had been used only for the state’s midterm primary.
The dispute centers on a map approved by the Missouri legislature in 2023 that drew a new congressional district in the Kansas City area designed to favor Republican candidates. The plan, which had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump and state GOP leaders, would have shifted Missouri’s delegation from six Democrats and two Republicans to a 7‑1 GOP majority.
After the legislature adopted the new districts, an opposition group filed a referendum petition. Missouri’s Supreme Court found that the referendum, which was still pending when the law was signed, prevented the map from taking effect. The court ruled that the 2020‑census map remains in force for the 2026 election.
Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, who had overseen the primary election using the new districts, argued that the state was now “forced to apply a starkly different congressional map in the 2026 General Election.” She said the high court’s ruling was “catastrophic” and filed an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking a stay that would allow the revised map to be used.
In the brief application, the state wrote: “Only this Court can prevent Missouri from being forced to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters; and only this Court can ensure that Missouri hosts a timely and lawful federal congressional election.” Hanaway later said, “We have just appealed yesterday’s catastrophic ruling to the Supreme Court of the United States. We look forward to the Court’s prompt review of this critical matter, as our ability to hold timely and lawful congressional elections hangs in the balance.”
Opponents of the appeal countered that the emergency request was fabricated. They claimed the Secretary of State had waited until the last possible day to challenge the referendum, after the state had already run the primary with the new map. “The Emergency Application for Stay does not present a real emergency,” the opponents wrote. “The Supreme Court should not reward the Secretary’s scheme to outsmart Missouri voters, Missouri law, and the Missouri Supreme Court by allowing the state to use a map that the state’s highest court concluded is not the law and has never been the law.”
Justice Kavanaugh’s decision was made without comment and without sending the application to the full court. As a result, the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling remains in effect, and Missouri will conduct the 2026 congressional election in the districts drawn in 2022. The state’s congressional map, therefore, will stay unchanged for the November general election, even though it had been in use only during the midterm primary.