The US Supreme Court on Tuesday declined an emergency appeal from Missouri officials seeking to use a newly drawn congressional map backed by President Donald Trump in the November midterm election. The justices left in place a ruling by the state’s highest court that blocked the new district lines from taking effect.
The decision is a setback for Republicans, who had hoped the redrawn boundaries would help them defend a narrow majority in the US House. Trump urged Republicans nationwide to pursue mid-decade redistricting last year, making Missouri part of a broader partisan fight over congressional maps.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in September that the new districts were automatically suspended by a citizen petition demanding a statewide vote. The court said the map must go before voters for approval or rejection, meaning it cannot be used this November. The state must revert to districts adopted after the last census and approved by Republican officials in 2022.
Missouri is currently represented in the US House by six Republicans and two Democrats. At Trump’s urging, Governor Mike Kehoe called the Legislature into a special session last year to redraw the boundaries ahead of the midterms.
The revised map targeted the 5th Congressional District, held by longtime Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City. It reassigned portions of Kansas City to two neighboring districts represented by Republicans and stretched the remainder of Cleaver’s district eastward.
The new districts were used in the August primaries before the state court intervened. Republican state Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, who filed the appeal, argued that switching districts for voters between the primary and general elections would violate federal rights and cause confusion.
Trump criticized the earlier state court ruling as “horrible, ridiculous, and unConstitutional.” The outcome is a rare loss for Republicans in the national redistricting effort, which has otherwise moved in their favor in several states.
The Supreme Court has been asked to weigh in on other election disputes this cycle, including a Trump order on mail-in voting ahead of the midterms. The Missouri case now returns to the state, where voters will decide the fate of the contested map at a future ballot.