Missouri Congressional Map Fight Returns to Supreme Court a Third Time

The legal battle over Missouri's congressional districts returned to the U.S. Supreme Court late Tuesday, after a federal appeals court ordered the revival of a map backed by President Donald Trump. It is the third time the dispute has reached the justices.

The new districts were drawn with the aim of helping Republicans pick up an additional U.S. House seat in the midterm elections, which will decide control of Congress. The Supreme Court has twice blocked attempts to put the map into use for November.

The latest emergency appeal followed an unusual appellate ruling that directed a last-minute return to the Republican-friendly map, even though the Supreme Court had previously halted such a move. The justices had allowed a Missouri Supreme Court decision to stand that requires the state to use its earlier map. That state ruling held that the new districts could not take effect unless voters approved them in a statewide referendum.

Supporters of the new map have until midday Wednesday to respond to the appeal.

The uncertainty has created confusion for more than a million potential voters who could be shifted between districts. Absentee voting in Missouri is already under way using boundaries adopted in 2022, after the last census.

The Trump-backed map substantially redraws a Kansas City-area district held by Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver. Republicans hope it could deliver seven of the state's eight House seats, one more than they currently hold.

Missouri's redistricting fight has been the longest and most complicated among roughly a dozen states that have sought to alter their U.S. House boundaries over the past year. Districts are typically redrawn once a decade following a census, but Trump prompted a wave of mid-decade redistricting last year when he called on Republican-led states to redraw maps to gain an advantage in the midterms.