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| KNBC 9/YOUTUBE |
‘This Court holds that Missouri’s current plan to use the 2022 map in the November 2026 general election violates the Constitution.’
Missouri’s chaotic redistricting battle is finally over — or so America thought.
A three-judge panel for the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that the Show Me State must use its 2025 congressional map in the upcoming midterm elections. The new map would take Missouri from a six Republican-two Democrat map (enacted in 2022) to a seven Republican-one Democrat map.
“This Court holds that Missouri’s current plan to use the 2022 map in the November 2026 general election violates the Constitution. Only use of the 2025 map complies with the Constitution and federal law,” the court held.
The panel was comprised of Judge James Loken, a Bush 41 appointee, and Judges David Stras and Justin Smith, both Trump appointees.
The entire kerfuffle began earlier this month, when the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the state must use its 2022 map for the midterms and to include a statewide referendum on the 2025 map on Missouri’s 2026 fall ballot. The left-wing People Not Politicians‘ efforts to get the referendum placed on the ballot were initially rejected by Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins.
Missouri-based Chief District Judge Stephen Clark, a Trump appointee, issued a temporary restraining order days later in a federal challenge brought by several congressional candidates, mandating the Show Me State to use the 2025 map for the midterms. That ruling came moments after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected an emergency request by Missouri officials to pause the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision.
SCOTUS ultimately froze Clark’s TRO without explanation the following day. The high court said that the lower court’s order is paused “pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari in this Court, if such a writ is timely sought.”
In its per curiam opinion, the 8th Circuit noted estimates indicating that more than 1.4 million Missourians “could not vote for the congressional district nominees who will appear on their November 2026 general election ballot, and [how] more than a quarter-million Missourians who voted in the August 2026 primary election cast a vote for a congressional district candidate who now cannot represent them.” Permitting the state to use its 2022 map under these circumstances, it said, would allow “some Missouri voters [to] have more say than others on who represents them in Congress.” --->READ MORE HERE
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| FOX NEWS |
The ruling reverses Supreme Court decisions and splits a Kansas City district, likely eliminating a Democratic-leaning seat
A Missouri appeals court ordered Monday that the state must use a GOP-drawn congressional map in November’s elections, reversing a series of Supreme Court decisions.
The St. Louis-based Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made the ruling Monday, just one day before absentee and mail-in ballots were slated to be sent out to voters. Military and overseas voters have already begun to receive ballots, according to the Associated Press.
"This Court holds that Missouri’s current plan to use the 2022 map in the November 2026 general election violates the Constitution. Only use of the 2025 map complies with the Constitution and federal law," Eighth Circuit Judge Stephen R. Clark wrote in a previous decision, which was upheld by the appeals panel in Monday's ruling.
The map, drawn by Missouri’s Republican-dominated state assembly in 2025, has already been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court twice on procedural grounds, most recently earlier this month.
The new map splits Missouri’s 5th Congressional District, which encompasses the state’s largest metropolitan area centered on Kansas City, into two districts, likely eliminating one of the state’s two Democratic-leaning districts.
Despite numerous challenges, Missouri did use the 2025 map for its August primary elections. An August ruling from a state trial court ruled that a reversion to the 2022 map "would move hundreds of thousands of voters into different districts for the imminent 2026 general election compared to the districts in which they cast their ballots in the August primary elections."
The Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities already announced it won’t be using the 2025 map for November, arguing in an appeal filing that the state does not have enough time to provide new ballots, according to the AP. --->READ MORE HEREFollow link below to a relevant story:
+++++Supreme Court to hear Missouri redistricting case for third time+++++
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