The Missouri Supreme Court upheld a new Republican-friendly congressional map in a series of rulings Tuesday, dealing yet another blow to Democrats in the national redistricting fight.
The court’s unanimous ruling allows the implementation of a map that divides Kansas City into three congressional districts — and likely cuts down Democratic representation to just one of the state’s eight seats. The court also rejected an attempt to block the map’s usage through a December petition that would have put the issue up for a ballot referendum vote.
Tuesday’s decisions highlight the role state supreme courts will play in the wider redistricting landscape following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down a key provision in the Voting Rights Act. Missouri’s court is nonpartisan, though five of its seven justices were appointed by Republican governors. And last week, the Virginia Supreme Court — which also leans conservative — overturned a voter-approved map that could have given Democrats an additional four U.S. House seats.
Last year, Missouri’s Republican-led general assembly passed a map that would more than likely flip the state’s 5th Congressional District, currently represented by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver. Democrats appealed two county circuit court decisions in March that upheld the map, arguing the new version violates a state constitutional requirement that districts be compact. The state Supreme Court affirmed earlier circuit court rulings.
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“The circuit court did not refuse to consider Appellants’ evidence; rather, it merely gave this evidence little weight,” Chief Justice W. Brent Powell wrote in the final decision.
Justices also heard a case that centered on the map’s timing: Democrats argued the map was actually blocked last December when residents gathered more than 300,000 petition signatures to force a referendum vote on the redistricting effort. The petition has enough signatures to get on the ballot, though Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, has not confirmed whether or not the referendum will be approved.
Plaintiffs argued that a 1914 ruling on referendums allowed for suspension of a law once a petition has been filed. This argument also held little weight with the judges.
“Had the drafters intended a referendum petition filing to automatically suspend any act of the General Assembly at issue in the referendum petition, they would have so stated,” Justice Ginger Gooch wrote in the decision for the case, adding that the 1914 ruling required “legal, sufficient and timely” petitions.
Democratic state legislators demanded Hoskins explain why he has not yet certified the petition signatures that would prompt a ballot referendum. The secretary of state has until the Aug. 4 primaries to approve or deny the petition, and he told reporters Tuesday that he intends to use the full amount of time available.
“A sufficient petition suspends the law the day it is turned in,” said Richard von Glahn, the executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, which led the signature-gathering campaign. “Unnecessary delays by politicians do not change this fact. If he continues to delay, then he is moving forward under a map that has been suspended by the people.”
Meanwhile, Republicans have been celebrating the court’s rulings. Gov. Mike Kehoe described the decision as “a HUGE victory for voters.”
“Missourians are more alike than we are different, and our Missouri values — rooted in common sense, hard work, and personal responsibility — are stronger and far more aligned across both sides of the aisle than the extreme left-wing agendas pushed in states like New York, California, and Illinois,” he wrote in an X post Tuesday.
The day before Tuesday’s ruling, Cleaver said the Congressional Black Caucus will fight against Republican maps.
“Having grown up in segregated Texas, I understand exactly what the Voting Rights Act means for Black voices and representation in America,” he wrote, adding that the caucus “will not stand by while the Supreme Court and Republicans work to roll back the clock.”
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