The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected another attempt to revive Missouri’s Republican-backed congressional map, effectively settling a weeks-long legal battle over which districts voters will use in the November midterm elections.
In a unanimous decision, the justices blocked lower federal court rulings that would have required Missouri to use congressional boundaries approved by the Republican-controlled state legislature in 2025.
Instead, Missouri must use the congressional map adopted in 2022 and used during the 2022 and 2024 elections.
“In short, as a matter of state law, the 2022 map — not the 2025 map — must be used in the 2026 congressional election,” the Supreme Court said in its unsigned opinion.
“The District Court and Court of Appeals should not enjoin or otherwise prohibit the use of the 2022 map in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri,” the court ordered. “And the District Court and Court of Appeals should not order or otherwise require Missouri to use the 2025 map.”
The decision represents the third time this month the nation’s highest court has intervened against efforts to use the newer map.
The dispute carries potentially significant consequences for control of the narrowly divided U.S. House.
Missouri’s existing congressional delegation consists of six Republicans and two Democrats. The 2025 map was designed to make Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City-based 5th Congressional District substantially more favorable to Republicans, potentially creating a 7-1 GOP advantage in the state’s delegation.
President Donald Trump encouraged Missouri Republicans to redraw the state’s congressional boundaries as part of a broader mid-decade redistricting effort ahead of the 2026 elections.
Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe called lawmakers into a special session last year, and the legislature approved the new boundaries in September 2025. The map quickly faced opposition.
A group called People Not Politicians launched a referendum campaign seeking to force a statewide vote on the new districts and submitted more than 300,000 signatures.
That eventually produced the central legal question in the case: whether the 2025 map could take effect before Missouri voters had their say, though voters already had a say when they selected members of the state legislature.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Sept. 3 that it could not.
The state court concluded that enough valid signatures had been submitted to trigger Missouri’s referendum process and that the new congressional map therefore could not take effect unless voters approved it.
The court said the 2025 map “is not the law and has never been the law” in Missouri.
Republican state officials challenged that decision, beginning a rapid series of state and federal court battles that produced conflicting orders just weeks before Election Day.
Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins first asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state Supreme Court’s decision.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles emergency matters originating from the 8th Circuit, denied that request Sept. 8.
Hours later, U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark issued a separate order requiring Missouri to use the 2025 districts.
The Supreme Court intervened again Sept. 10, blocking Clark’s order and leaving the 2022 map in place while litigation continued.
The dispute then shifted to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Sept. 21, a federal appeals court panel sided with supporters of the Republican-backed map.
The appeals court reasoned in part that Missouri had already conducted its August primary elections using the 2025 districts and that switching maps between the primary and general election raised federal constitutional concerns.
On Friday, the justices rejected the appeals court’s reasoning.
The Supreme Court emphasized that the Missouri Supreme Court had already explained months before the primary that the new map could not take effect if a legally sufficient referendum petition was submitted.
The justices therefore rejected the suggestion that the Missouri Supreme Court itself was responsible for creating last-minute election confusion.
Instead, the U.S. Supreme Court pointed to the secretary of state’s decision to proceed with the August primary using the disputed 2025 districts despite knowing that the map’s legal status remained uncertain.
The court also invoked the principle that federal courts should generally avoid imposing election changes close to Election Day.
“At this late date, ordering reversion to the 2025 map in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos,” the court said, even though Missouri voters who voted under the new map are now likely to be disenfranchised.
Absentee voting has already begun, and local election officials have been preparing ballots and administering the election using the 2022 districts.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
