Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway asked the U.S. Supreme Court late Friday to intervene in a rapidly escalating redistricting battle, seeking an emergency stay of a state Supreme Court ruling that prevents Missouri from using its newly drawn congressional districts in November’s midterm elections.
The unusual appeal asks the nation’s highest court to step into a dispute already decided unanimously by Missouri’s highest court. Hanaway argues that changing congressional boundaries after voters already participated in August primaries under the new map could throw the state’s general election into disarray.
“A federal-election-administration disaster is unfolding in Missouri,” Hanaway wrote in the emergency filing submitted to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles emergency applications arising from the federal circuit that includes Missouri.
Hanaway turned to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a citizen-led referendum challenging the congressional map adopted by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2025 was legally valid and must appear on the November ballot. The map had the backing of President Donald Trump and was designed in a way that could give Republicans an opportunity to win seven of Missouri’s eight U.S. House seats.
One of the most consequential changes under the new boundaries involves the Kansas City-area district represented by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. The redrawn lines would make that seat substantially more favorable to Republicans, potentially changing the state’s current 6-2 Republican congressional advantage to 7-1.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that because the referendum petition was legally sufficient and submitted before the new redistricting law took effect, the 2025 map cannot be implemented unless voters approve it. As a result, the court ordered the November congressional elections to be conducted using the map adopted in 2022.
That older map also favors Republicans, who currently hold six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts, but it preserves the configuration under which Cleaver has maintained his Kansas City-based seat.
The timing has created an extraordinary complication for election officials. Missouri held its congressional primaries last month using the 2025 districts that the state Supreme Court has now ruled cannot be used for the November general election. The primary results themselves were not invalidated.
Hanaway told the U.S. Supreme Court that Missouri officials are “genuinely unsure whether it can switch its governing congressional map in time to run a timely federal election.”
She argued that forcing the state to revert to its previous congressional boundaries after candidates and voters already participated in primaries under different districts would produce unprecedented disruption.
“No court in American history has ever given such an extraordinary remedy, which inflicts unprecedented chaos on Missouri,” she wrote. “Looking backwards, the order renders a completed federal Primary Election utterly pointless—disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters who will now be moved into new districts and forced to vote for candidates they had no role in selecting.”
The Missouri Supreme Court rejected a request to pause its decision while state officials sought relief from the U.S. Supreme Court, clearing the way for Hanaway and Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to make their emergency appeal to Washington.
Kavanaugh has directed attorneys representing those who challenged the new congressional districts to respond to Missouri’s emergency application by noon Monday.
The underlying dispute centers on a referendum campaign organized by opponents of the 2025 map. More than 300,000 signatures were submitted in an effort to force a statewide vote on the redistricting plan.
Hoskins blocked the referendum from appearing on the ballot in August, concluding that congressional redistricting legislation was not eligible to be challenged through Missouri’s referendum process.
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously rejected that position Thursday, repeatedly criticizing Hoskins’ legal arguments and finding that the state Constitution allows voters to seek a referendum on congressional redistricting legislation.
The court concluded that the petition was “legal, sufficient, and timely,” finding that the Missouri Constitution permits a referendum on “any act of the general assembly” unless a specific exception applies.
The justices consequently ordered Hoskins to certify the referendum and place it on the November ballot. They also barred him and other state officials from using the 2025 congressional districts unless and until voters approve them.
The state’s highest court made clear that practical difficulties resulting from the late change did not override the constitutional issue, saying the previous map remains the only congressional map legally in effect for November.
The Missouri dispute is part of a much broader mid-decade redistricting battle unfolding around the country ahead of the 2026 elections, with both Republicans and Democrats seeking changes to congressional boundaries in states they control. The fight has taken on added significance because of the narrow partisan divide in the U.S. House.
Thursday also brought a major development in Maryland, where that state’s highest court cleared the way for a November ballot question involving a proposed congressional redistricting plan that could ultimately give Democrats an opportunity to capture all eight of Maryland’s House districts beginning in 2028.
For Missouri, however, the immediate question has now shifted to Washington. With the November election approaching and the state facing the prospect of conducting its general election under different congressional boundaries from those used in its primaries, Hanaway is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the new districts to remain in place while the legal battle continues.
Whether that happens now rests initially with Kavanaugh and potentially with the full Supreme Court, as Missouri officials race against looming election deadlines.
{Matzav.com}
