JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A federal judge in Missouri on Tuesday temporarily blocked the state from using its old congressional districts in the November election, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to get involved in the twisting and confusing legal battle.
The decisions highlight the confusion nature of Missouri’s redistricting battle, which has spanned more than a year.
The federal court action came just days after the Missouri Supreme Court said the state cannot used a new U.S. House map backed by President Donald Trump in the November election because citizens turned in thousands of petition signatures demanding a statewide vote on it.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take up an appeal from Missouri’s Republican attorney general, leaving in place the injunction from Missouri’s top court. But moments later, U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Missouri from using anything other than the new districts backed by Republicans.
The new districts were used in the August primary, and the winners already were certified by election officials. The question of which districts will be used in the November election continues to linger.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rebuffed an appeal from Missouri officials who wanted to use new congressional districts backed by President Donald Trump in the November election, a defeat for Republicans who had hoped the new map could help them hold onto their slim House majority.
The justices let stand a decision by Missouri's top court, which said the new districts were automatically suspended by a citizen petition demanding a statewide vote.
The ruling marks a rare setback for Republicans in a nationwide redistricting battle that Trump urged Republicans to launch last year.
Missouri’s new districts were used in the August primaries. But the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in September that the state must revert to districts adopted after the last census.
Republican state Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, who appealed, had argued it would violate federal rights to switch districts for voters between the primary and general elections. She also said it would cause confusion.
Missouri currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Republicans and two Democrats who were elected under districts that Republican state officials approved in 2022.
But at Trump's urging, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe called the Legislature into a special session last year to redraw congressional boundaries to their advantage ahead of the midterms.
The revised map targeted the 5th Congressional District, held by longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City. It reassigned portions of Kansas City to two neighboring districts represented by Republicans and stretched the remainder of Cleaver's district far eastward into rural Republican areas.
Cleaver was unopposed in the Democratic primary. State Sen. Rick Brattin won the Republican primary in the reshaped district.
On the same day as the primary, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected a petition with thousands of signatures seeking to force a November referendum on the map. Hoskins asserted that Missouri's Constitution doesn't allow a referendum on congressional redistricting. A lower court agreed, but the state Supreme Court reversed Hoskins' decision.
The state’s top court said the new districts were retroactively frozen in December, when the petition signatures were submitted, and thus never became law. Hoskins on Tuesday assigned the redistricting referendum as Proposition A on the November ballot, in compliance with the state court order.
The Missouri Constitution does not specifically say that a referendum can be used for congressional redistricting. But the state Supreme Court said a constitutional provision allowing a referendum on “any act” of the Legislature encompasses congressional redistricting legislation.
Missouri was the second Republican-led state, after Texas, to respond to Trump's call last year to redraw congressional districts. Several other states followed. All told, Republicans had hoped to win as many as 16 additional seats from new House maps enacted in eight states — Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama. Democrats, whose counterattack faced several setbacks, think they could win up to six additional seats from new districts in California and Utah.
It remains to be seen whether the redistricting works as intended for Republicans. The president’s party historically has lost congressional seats in the midterms, and Trump’s poor approval ratings could provide an extra hurdle for Republican candidates.
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