Supreme Court Bars Missouri's GOP Map for Third Time

The Supreme Court unanimously blocked Missouri's Republican-drawn congressional map for a third time, requiring the 2022 map in November's midterms.

On Friday, September 25, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court barred Missouri from using a redrawn congressional map designed to favor Republicans in the November 3 midterm elections — the third time the justices had intervened in the fight. In an unsigned ruling with no public dissent, the court said that as a matter of state law the 2022 map, not the 2025 map, must govern the 2026 congressional election. The justices granted a request from challengers including the group People Not Politicians to suspend lower court decisions that had ordered the reconfigured boundaries back into use.

Missouri Republicans adopted their new map in 2025 after President Donald Trump urged Republican-governed states to redraw House districts to boost the party's chances of keeping its narrow majority. The Springfield News-Leader reports the 2025 map targeted Democratic U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City by stretching the 5th District deep into rural Republican strongholds along the Missouri River; under the 2022 boundaries, Cleaver won with 60% of the vote in each of the past two elections. Reverting to the 2022 map means voters in 28 counties will be in different districts in November than they were in the August 4 primary.

The dispute raced through state and federal courts, with the Springfield News-Leader noting the map in place for November changed five times in three weeks. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled September 3 that the map could not be used until put to a voter referendum. U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark then ordered the 2025 map used anyway, the Supreme Court stayed his order on September 10, and the St. Louis-based 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday ruled the GOP map must be used — even directing Clark to make his temporary order permanent. That defiance set up Friday's rebuke.

The court's unsigned ruling said reinstating the Republican-drawn map in the midst of an ongoing election 'would usher in electoral chaos,' adding that given two prior interventions the latest order should 'come as no surprise.' Absentee voting was already underway in Missouri, with ballots mailed and officials preparing under the 2022 map. The Springfield News-Leader reports that Missouri Solicitor General Lou Capozzi had conceded in a final brief that, regardless of what the court did, 'Missouri will not be able to run an orderly 2026 general election.'

Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, praised the ruling, saying, 'We are done with corrupt politicians trying to force their map into effect outside the process outlined in the Missouri constitution.' A Republican National Committee spokesperson countered that the decision 'throws Missouri voters into unnecessary uncertainty after they already cast their primary ballots.' Per the Springfield News-Leader, the map will appear on the ballot as Proposition A, with People Not Politicians buying about $800,000 in broadcast ads through Election Day.

The ruling caps Republicans' effort this cycle to flip a seventh Missouri House seat through redistricting and lets election officials continue preparations without interruption. The referendum question now goes to voters, and challengers led by Representative Bob Onder had argued the map switch between primary and general elections violated equal protection — an argument that failed. According to the Maryland Daily Record, the order followed the 8th Circuit's Monday directive to Judge Clark, a Trump appointee, to make his temporary order permanent, a move that appeared to require renewed Supreme Court intervention and ultimately drew it.