The U.S. Supreme Court intervened Thursday in Missouri’s escalating redistricting fight, blocking the state from using a Republican-drawn congressional map in the November midterm elections and putting the state back on course to vote under boundaries adopted in 2022.
In a brief unsigned order, the justices granted an emergency request from the political action committee People Not Politicians and its executive director, Richard von Glahn, temporarily halting a federal judge’s ruling that required Missouri to use the newer map.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles emergency matters arising from the federal appeals court covering Missouri, referred the application to the full court. No justice publicly dissented, and the court offered no explanation for its decision, which is common in emergency proceedings.
The immediate effect is significant: Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins instructed local election officials to proceed with the congressional districts enacted in 2022.
Those boundaries currently produce a congressional delegation of six Republicans and two Democrats.
The new map, approved by Missouri’s Republican-controlled legislature during a 2025 special session called by Gov. Mike Kehoe (R), was designed in part to make the Kansas City-based 5th Congressional District more favorable to Republicans.
That seat has been represented since 2005 by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.
Under the 2022 map, Cleaver’s district centers heavily on Kansas City and portions of Jackson and Clay counties. The 2025 version substantially reconfigured the district by adding Republican-leaning rural territory, potentially changing its partisan makeup.
President Donald Trump had encouraged Missouri Republicans to undertake the mid-decade redistricting effort as the GOP sought additional House seats before the 2026 elections.
But the map quickly became entangled in a state constitutional fight.
People Not Politicians gathered more than 300,000 signatures seeking to force a statewide referendum on the new boundaries.
Hoskins rejected the referendum petition on Aug. 4, concluding that Missouri’s constitutional referendum provisions did not apply to congressional redistricting plans passed by the legislature.
Von Glahn and the group challenged that determination.
On Sept. 3, the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled that congressional redistricting legislation can be subjected to the state’s referendum process and that the petition was legally sufficient and timely.
The state high court concluded that the 2025 map had been suspended by the referendum effort and therefore had never taken legal effect for the general election. Justices ordered Hoskins to place the issue before voters and prohibited election officials from using the new boundaries unless voters approved them.
The referendum is scheduled to appear on Missouri’s Nov. 3 ballot as Proposition A. Critics say the measure should not have been approved in the first place since the U.S. Constitution gives state legislatures the power to draw congressional districts, not voters.
Voters, they further argue, get a say in the matter by choosing their legislative representatives.
Missouri Republican officials next sought emergency relief from the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that reverting to the older districts after the state had already conducted its August primary under the 2025 boundaries would create serious election problems.
They noted that approximately 1.2 million Missourians had already voted in primaries using the newer map and argued that candidates had campaigned, raised money and competed for nominations based on districts that could suddenly cease to exist.
Kavanaugh rejected that emergency request on Sept. 8, leaving the Missouri Supreme Court ruling intact.
But only hours later, the dispute took another turn.
Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark in St. Louis issued a temporary restraining order in a separate federal lawsuit brought by Republican Rep. Bob Onder and other plaintiffs.
Clark prohibited Hoskins from using any congressional map other than the 2025 boundaries.
He concluded that switching maps after the primary raised serious federal constitutional concerns because some voters could be forced to choose among general-election candidates in districts where they had not participated in selecting the nominees.
Clark also emphasized the practical disruption that would result from changing districts with Election Day approaching.
“Candidates who had no choice but to campaign and raise money” under the new boundaries had invested resources in districts that could disappear, Clark wrote.
Hoskins responded by directing local election authorities to prepare ballots using the 2025 map.
That placed him in an extraordinary position: a federal court was directing him to use the new districts while the Missouri Supreme Court had ordered him not to.
The state Supreme Court subsequently considered whether Hoskins should be held in contempt for acting contrary to its earlier order.
People Not Politicians then returned to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The group asked the justices to suspend Clark’s federal order, arguing that Missouri law clearly prevented the 2025 map from taking effect while voters considered the referendum.
Its emergency filing emphasized that the Missouri Supreme Court had already determined that the referendum petition legally suspended the redistricting measure.
On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to block Clark’s order.
The ruling does not amount to a final decision on every constitutional issue raised in the federal lawsuit. Instead, it stays the district court’s temporary order while the litigation continues.
The case remains pending in the federal courts, including proceedings before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
NEW: The Eighth Circuit has expedited its review of the Missouri congressional map dispute following the Supreme Court’s stay. Merits briefs are due Tuesday, with remote oral argument set for Thursday, Sept. 17. https://t.co/BRHN9wxczv pic.twitter.com/aAtv7FhczG
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) September 10, 2026
Still, with ballots soon needing to be finalized and distributed, Thursday’s decision has an immediate practical effect.
Missouri election officials are now preparing to conduct the Nov. 3 congressional elections under the 2022 map.
That means the state will revert to the same basic congressional boundaries used in the 2022 and 2024 elections despite holding its August 2026 primary under the newer districts.
The situation creates unusual complications for candidates – and voters.
Republicans held their August primary based on the 2025 boundaries, including in the substantially altered 5th District. State Sen. Rick Brattin won the Republican nomination there.
Cleaver is again the Democratic nominee.
