Supreme Court Blocks Trump-Backed Missouri Map as Absentee Voting Begins

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to revive a Republican-friendly congressional map in Missouri that President Donald Trump had backed, ending a prolonged legal fight at a moment when absentee voting is already underway ahead of the midterm elections.

The justices set aside a federal appeals court decision that would have restored the new map for November, with no dissents noted. Their action leaves in place a ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court, which held earlier this month that a citizen petition bars the revised districts from being used unless voters approve them in a referendum.

As a result, Missouri voters will cast ballots under the congressional boundaries used in the 2022 and 2024 elections. In an unsigned opinion, the high court warned that switching maps mid-election would invite disorder, writing that reverting to the 2025 map at this stage would usher in electoral chaos. It directed the lower courts not to block the use of the 2022 map in Missouri's 2026 congressional election.

Republicans had hoped the new map, already used in the August primaries, would deliver an additional House seat as part of a nationwide redistricting push by Trump aimed at gaining an advantage in the midterms. The party currently holds six of Missouri's eight House districts; the revised boundaries were drawn to help it capture seven.

The legal back-and-forth has sown confusion for more than a million potential voters — nearly one in four statewide — who were moved between districts, leaving them with different candidates on their ballots. Absentee voting opened Tuesday under the 2022 lines, though some local election officials had advised voters to wait amid the uncertainty.

The revised map significantly altered a Kansas City-area district held by longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, removing parts of Kansas City to neighboring districts with Republican incumbents and extending the remainder of his 5th Congressional District far east into rural Republican territory. Roughly 59% of potential voters in the district were new to it, with ripple effects touching most of the state's other districts.

Cleaver ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, while Republican state Sen. Rick Brattin won a six-way Republican primary under the revised boundaries. Both remain the general-election candidates even though the district lines have reverted. Brattin, Republican Rep. Bob Onder and two other voters were plaintiffs in the federal suit that produced the 8th Circuit ruling and the latest appeals.

At least 16 lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts over Missouri's redistricting, making it the longest and most complicated of the battles in roughly a dozen states that sought to redraw U.S. House districts over the past year. The new map had survived most challenges, including claims that mid-decade redistricting violated the state constitution and that the districts failed compactness requirements.

The dispute intensified after Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins waited until the legal deadline on Aug. 4 — the day the new districts were used in the primaries — to reject the referendum petition, arguing such petitions are not permitted for congressional redistricting. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled on Sept. 3 that the petition was valid and ordered Hoskins to use the 2022 districts. The U.S. Supreme Court let that decision stand on Sept. 8, but minutes later a federal district judge issued a conflicting order favoring the new map.

The high court blocked that order on Sept. 10, the same day the Missouri Supreme Court held Hoskins temporarily in contempt for telling local election authorities to use the new map. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals then ruled Monday in favor of the Trump-backed map, prompting the latest Supreme Court action.