Supreme Court blocks Missouri's Republican-favored congressional map for third time

The Supreme Court on Friday declined for the third time in less than a month to allow Missouri to use a new congressional map intended to benefit Republicans in the November 2026 elections. In a five-page unsigned order released shortly before 6 p.m. EDT, the justices paused a ruling by a federal appeals court in St. Louis that had directed the state to implement the new map, with no public dissents.nypost.com+1

The order matters because it settles which congressional boundaries Missouri voters will use after months of conflicting rulings from state and federal courts. The justices told lower courts they "should not enjoin or otherwise prohibit the use of the" map enacted in 2022, and also "should not order or otherwise require Missouri to use the" new map "in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri." The 2022 map remains in use while voting is already underway.motherjones.com

What the five-page order said

The dispute began in September 2025, when Missouri adopted a new map intended to give Republicans an additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans currently hold six of Missouri's eight House districts. At the urging of President Donald Trump and Republican Governor Mike Kehoe, Missouri lawmakers last September passed revised districts intended to help them win seven seats in the midterms.

How the dispute began

The case reached the Supreme Court three times. On 4 September, Hoskins asked the justices to pause the Missouri Supreme Court's ruling; Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied the request four days later without referring it to the full court. On 10 September, the court paused an order by Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark that had directed the state to use the 2025 map. On 22 September, People Not Politicians and von Glahn returned for a third time.pbs.org

How the case reached the court three times

The new map significantly reshaped a Kansas City-based district held by longtime Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver, shedding parts of Kansas City to neighboring districts and stretching the remainder of Cleaver's 5th Congressional District eastward into rural Republican areas. About 59% of potential voters were new to the district, according to an Associated Press estimate. The legal wrangling affected more than a million Missouri voters, nearly one in four statewide.

What the map would have changed

Missouri and the individual plaintiffs supporting the 2025 map argued that People Not Politicians and von Glahn lacked standing to pursue their appeal, pointing to the Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Hollingsworth v. Perry. The plaintiffs countered that the court's prior orders "are not invitations for a lower court to repackage the same relief and try again," noting that ballots had already been sent to military and overseas voters.

At least 16 lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts related to Missouri's congressional redistricting, the longest and most complex battle among roughly a dozen states that sought to change their U.S. House districts over the past year. Republican state Senator Rick Brattin and Representative Robert Onder won nominations in the August 2026 primary under the new districts but will face voters under the reverted 2022 lines.

Absentee voting began Tuesday under the 2022 congressional districts, though some local election officials had urged voters to wait because of the legal uncertainty. The Eighth Circuit's delayed order was set to take effect at 5 p.m. CDT on 28 September, the next date on which the litigation could move, though the Supreme Court's Friday order instructs lower courts not to require Missouri to use the 2025 map.