Composite story
Missouri asks the U.S. Supreme Court to revive a Trump-backed House map after the state high court blocked it
Farragutful / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously said the 2025 map cannot be used in November unless voters approve it. Attorney General Hanaway filed an emergency stay with Justice Kavanaugh.
Missouri officials asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday night to stay a unanimous state supreme court ruling that blocked a Republican-drawn 2025 congressional map from the November general election. Justice Brett Kavanaugh set a Monday noon response deadline. The 2022 map stays in force unless voters approve the new lines. President Trump called the state ruling ridiculous.
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Missouri high court blocks GOP-backed congressional maps ahead of midterms; Trump blasts ridiculous ruling
3 Sep 2026
Facts
Attorney General Catherine Hanaway plans to immediately appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
President Trump called Thursday's ruling ridiculous and argued it was unconstitutional.
Hanaway said today’s decision disenfranchises every Missouri voter.
Trump said there will not be enough time to change the map before November's elections.
Trump wrote that the Missouri Supreme Court ridiculously ruled to change the maps back to what they were a long time ago.
Trump said Missouri must be able to use the map that was in effect in the primary.
Gov. Kehoe said he is extremely disappointed in unelected judges and their lack of respect for the legislative process.
Kehoe said holding a primary under one map and a general election under another is unprecedented and creates uncertainty.
Five of the seven current justices, including the chief justice, were appointed by Republican governors.
Cleaver said the people fought back and won.
Kehoe said the ruling does not change the state’s belief in the Missouri First Map and that officials will stand behind it.
Opinion
Fox News called the ruling a rare setback for Republicans in a national redistricting battle.
Trump said the election process is being disturbed in America.
Trump called the ruling a dark day for justice in Missouri.
Cleaver called the map fight a cynical and deeply shameful attempt to silence neighbors.
Cleaver said the ruling reaffirms that people should choose their politicians, not the other way around.
DNC Chair Ken Martin called the ruling a big win for democracy and the people of Missouri.
Martin said Democrats will keep fighting to end what he called a Republican gerrymandering sham.
Missouri supreme court blocks Trump-backed map from November election
3 Sep 2026
Facts
The ruling still could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court placed the new districts on hold because citizens submitted petition signatures seeking a referendum.
The Missouri constitution does not specifically say a referendum petition can be used for a congressional redistricting law.
Missouri currently has six Republicans and two Democrats in the U.S. House.
Cleaver was unopposed in the August primary and has carried the Kansas City district with at least 60% in each of the past two elections.
Republican state senator Rick Brattin won an August primary in the reshaped fifth district.
About 59% of the district’s voters were new under the revised map, according to an AP estimate.
Missouri’s top court had already rejected claims that the special session was illegal, mid-decade redistricting isn’t allowed, and the new districts aren’t compact enough.
The fight triggered a dozen lawsuits in Missouri alone.
Republicans had hoped to net as many as 10 additional seats nationally.
Cleaver had not posted campaign signs in many of the new rural areas, waiting for the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision.
The Missouri ruling was one of only a few nationally to go against Republicans’ redistricting plans.
Opinion
The Guardian called Thursday’s decision a rare setback for Republicans in a national redistricting battle.
Missouri urges Supreme Court to allow for use of congressional map expected to aid Republicans
5 Sep 2026
Facts
Petition proponent Richard von Glahn went to state court seeking to reverse Hoskins’ decision and block the new map.
The state supreme court rejected Hoskins’ confusion argument as wholly unpersuasive.
In his Friday-night filing, Hoskins argued the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision violates the U.S. Constitution.
The state court said Hoskins fundamentally misunderstood the status of HB 1 pending the referendum vote.
Hoskins said the state is genuinely unsure whether it can switch maps in time to run a timely federal election.
Hoskins said the Supreme Court has never held that 3.3% of a state’s voters can suspend a congressional map by referendum petition.
Hoskins asked the justices for an administrative stay, an immediate pause of the state ruling while they consider his request.
Hoskins said von Glahn will get his referendum vote regardless of what the Supreme Court does.
Hoskins said the only question is whether von Glahn can void a congressional map before the referendum vote.
Opinion
SCOTUSblog said the Monday federal-holiday deadline suggests the court intends to move quickly.
Missouri AG, Secretary of State ask SCOTUS to save congressional map
5 Sep 2026
Facts
Von Glahn said the attorney general is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to create a law that has never been the law in Missouri.
State law sets a Sept. 8 deadline to finalize ballots, and federal law requires overseas absentee ballots by Sept. 19.
Around 1.2 million Missourians already voted under the current map in the August primary, according to the application.
Missouri’s reply is due Sept. 8.
In Kansas City’s Columbus Park neighborhood, residents were already bracing for possible new district lines.
Under the 2022 map, parts of the neighborhood would shift from District 5 into Districts 4 and 6.
Opinion
Von Glahn said the legislature, including the people via referendum, makes law, not the judiciary.
Von Glahn said he is appalled the attorney general would strip voters of lawmaking authority in a brazen power grab.
Von Glahn called the request an absurd undoing of how laws are created.
Missouri attorney general asks U.S. Supreme Court to block map ruling
4 Sep 2026
Facts
The ruling blocked Secretary of State Denny Hoskins from conducting the election using the new map.
Hanaway said Missouri’s ability to hold timely and lawful congressional elections hangs in the balance.
The decision centered on a referendum campaign seeking to strike down the map at the ballot box.
Hatfield said the opinion is based on state law, not federal law, and is not a proper subject for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Separately on Friday, two Missouri Republican lawmakers filed a federal lawsuit seeking to require use of the new map in November.
Hatfield said the Missouri Supreme Court’s opinion is very clear.
Hanaway’s office called the decision a bizarre and profoundly anti-democratic holding, and absurd.
Referendum attorney Chuck Hatfield said Hanaway’s move was no surprise.
Attorney Marc Ellinger wrote that Missouri has been plunged into uncertainty over which maps and candidates govern the 2026 general election.
The map split Kansas City’s voters into three Republican-leaning districts.
Hatfield pointed out that both defendants and plaintiffs in that case supported the map.
Cleaver, Kansas City’s first Black mayor, has represented the city’s urban core in Congress since 2005.
Opinion
The Kansas City Star labeled the map gerrymandered.
The Star said Hanaway’s application capped a day of Republican anger at the state Supreme Court’s decision.
Hatfield said Brattin suing Hoskins is like Bert suing Ernie.
Hatfield said they agree on the map and that the suit is not a proper use of the court system.
The Kansas City Star called the filings the latest salvo in Missouri’s protracted redistricting fight.