Federal Judge Reinstates Missouri's GOP Map After SCOTUS Snub

Minutes after Justice Kavanaugh rejected Missouri's emergency appeal, a federal judge issued a TRO ordering the state to use its contested 2025 gerrymandered congressional map in November.

On Tuesday, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied Missouri Republican officials' emergency application to revive the state's 2025 GOP-drawn congressional map, without elaboration. Moments later, Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark in St. Louis issued a 14-day temporary restraining order blocking Secretary of State Denny Hoskins from using any map other than the one drawn during the 2025 special session. Had Clark not acted, Kavanaugh's denial would have left a Missouri Supreme Court order in place requiring the 2022 map for the November election. The result is an extraordinary standoff: the state's highest court says only the 2022 map is legally in force, while a federal judge is forbidding officials from using it.

The reversal came in a separate federal lawsuit filed just Friday by Rep. Bob Onder, state Sen. Rick Brattin, and two voters, after Hoskins had failed to obtain the same relief directly from the Supreme Court. Clark rejected the state's Elections Clause theory, finding Missouri's referendum power is a lawful part of its legislative process, according to Democracy Docket. Instead, he rested the order on constitutional claims that switching maps between the August primary and November general election could nullify primary votes and create unequal classes of voters, embracing what he called a "Purcell in reverse" argument that preserving the primary map avoids another last-minute change.

Clark wrote that plaintiffs face irreparable harm because many Missouri voters would cast general-election votes for candidates they had no role in nominating, and that candidates had spent money campaigning in 2025 districts that would no longer exist. He also ruled the public interest requires using the same map in the general election as in the primary. The Missouri Supreme Court had unanimously held last week that the referendum petition against the map was lawful and timely, and that the 2025 map "is not the law and has never been the law." Attorneys for People Not Politicians told the Supreme Court that Hoskins "waited as long as possible to manufacture the present dispute" by delaying signature verification.

Attorney General Catherine Hanaway issued a news release saying the state would comply with Clark's order, and Gov. Mike Kehoe praised the ruling as providing "much-needed clarity," according to Democracy Docket. But attorneys for People Not Politicians said local election authorities now hold valid orders pointing in opposite directions. "I think they're probably not sure what map they should use, and they need to talk to their lawyers about that," said Chuck Hatfield, the committee's attorney. Lead Supreme Court lawyer Abha Khanna said Clark's order "is something that we will deal with to figure out on appeal." The stakes are concrete: the 2025 map was drawn to make seven of eight districts favorable to Republicans, chiefly by reshaping Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City-based 5th District.

The weekend filing flurry shows intense national interest. Republican attorneys general from Florida, Texas and 18 other states backed Missouri, arguing it is illegal to change voting districts between the primary and the general election, while the Campaign Legal Center, the ACLU of Missouri Foundation, and the ACLU Foundation filed for People Not Politicians. The fight traces to summer 2025, when Onder pitched President Trump on Missouri adding GOP seats like Texas did, prompting Gov. Kehoe's contentious special session. A referendum on the map, Proposition A, will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot regardless, meaning voters will still decide whether the new districts survive.

Time is short: Missouri's ballot-finalization deadline was 5 p.m. Tuesday, and the first ballots go out Sept. 19, according to NBC News. Clark's ruling has already been appealed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, per Democracy Docket, and NBC News reports the case could quickly reach the Supreme Court. The state argues switching maps is infeasible, though county clerks told the Missouri Supreme Court the change is relatively simple, and the Jackson County Board of Elections said it would be ready to run the election under 2022 boundaries. Kavanaugh's denial created no precedent, leaving the full court free to weigh in later.