Supreme Court once again blocks Trump-backed House map in Missouri - USA Today

WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court, for the third time, sided with opponents of a GOP-drawn congressional map in Missouri, preventing that map from being used in the November elections.

The court on Sept. 25 suspended a lower court’s ruling that would have required the map drawn at the request of President Donald Trump to be used in the midterm elections. The midterms will decide control of Congress.

There were no noted dissents in the unsigned opinion.

"Given this Court’s two prior orders in this litigation, our conclusion that this was error should come as no surprise," the court said.

The map would have turned a seat held by Democrats toward the Republicans. Such swings are pivotal in helping Republicans' bid to hold onto their slim majority in the House.

Friday's ruling ended weeks of uncertainty about what map would be used. Putting the disputed GOP-map in place after absentee ballots have already gone out, the court said, “would usher in electoral chaos."

Abha Khanna, an attorney for the group opposed to the map, said the court’s decision protects the ballots that have already been cast and the right of Missourians to decide the fate of the map for themselves.

The legal battle stems from Trump pushing red states to rejigger maps midway through the normal redistricting cycle.

A map approved by the Missouri Legislature last year broke up a Democratic-held district in Kansas City, giving Republicans an advantage in seven of the state's eight House districts.

A group formed to oppose the new map, People Not Politicians, collected enough signatures to put the changes to a public vote through a ballot measure.

But Missouri’s secretary of state, Republican Denny Hoskins, said the state’s constitution doesn’t allow ballot measures over congressional redistricting. He did not issue that decision until Aug. 4, the same day as the state’s primary, preventing a legal challenge to his ruling before the primary.

At the beginning of September, the Missouri Supreme Court said state law requires the map be approved by voters before it can be used.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles emergency appeals from Missouri, then rejected a request from state officials and the Republican Party for the high court to intervene.

Hours later, however, a federal judge ruled for Republicans in a separate lawsuit, ordering the disputed map to be used.

The Supreme Court paused that order on Sept. 10. But the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 21 issued a new order putting the map back in place.

The appeals court said the disputed map must be used for the general election because it was used for the primary.  Otherwise, the court wrote, “some Missouri voters will have more say than others on who represents them in Congress," which would violate the Constitution.

One in four Missourians are in different districts than they were in the primary, so they did not have a say on the party nominees in their current district, the court said. And in districts where one party dominates, the winner of the primary is the overwhelming favorite to win the general election.

The court also said the disputed map could be restored at this late date without significant cost, confusion, or hardship.

The group opposing the map said the appeals court's order is, in fact, causing "chaos on both sides of Election Day: confusion over how to conduct the election now, and uncertainty over the rules governing its results."

People Not Politicians also argued that there is no constitutional right to cast votes in the same district for both the primary and general election.

Missouri officials told the court that regardless of what it decides, the state will not be able to run an “orderly” election at this point.

But given that no option is ideal, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said in a filing, the GOP-drawn map “better advances the public interest.”

“More than anything, Missouri voters need stability,” Hanaway wrote on behalf of Hoskins, the secretary of state. “The Secretary respectfully believes that denying a stay − and declining to change Missouri’s congressional map for a fifth time − is the best way to promote stability.”

In its decision, the Supreme Court said Hoskins was “well aware” of the risks of conducting the August primary using the new map before it had been approved by voters.

“The Secretary nonetheless chose to proceed with the 2025 map for the primary,” the court said.

The court also said it has never previously ruled that the Constitution requires a state to stick with the primary election map through the general election.

"In short, as a matter of state law, the 2022 map −not the 2025 map − must be used in the 2026 congressionalelection," the court said.