A federal court in Missouri ruled in favor of Republicans on Monday afternoon, breathing new life into the party’s desire for a more GOP-friendly U.S. House map in the state.
Just a week ago, the issue of which map Missourians would use in November seemed all but settled. But a federal appeals court moved on an expedited timeline to interpret the Supreme Court’s blocking of a lower court ruling earlier this month. The Supreme Court’s ruling had seemingly stopped Republican efforts to draw out Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City seat. The ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals — a three-panel court that oversees federal cases from seven states — is likely to be appealed directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The ruling comes after Missouri began sending out its mail-in ballots to absentee voters on Friday based on the 2022 congressional map.
That appeal will mark the third time the U.S. Supreme Court has dealt with Missouri’s redistricting efforts. On Sep. 10, the high court granted an emergency appeal to People Not Politicians Missouri, a group opposed to the redistricting push, without any justices noted as dissenting.
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Missouri was the second state to redraw its congressional map after President Donald Trump called on Republican legislatures to redraw their district lines. Almost exactly a year ago, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed the “Missouri First” map into law, setting off a slew of lawsuits against the redraw.
In Missouri, laws passed by the legislature can be put to a voter referendum by collecting a certain number of signatures. People Not Power submitted the signatures to Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in December, who in August, on the same day as the state’s primary elections, announced he would not be certifying the petition.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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