The U.S. Supreme Court intervened Thursday in Missouri’s escalating redistricting fight, blocking the state from using a Republican-drawn congressional map in the November midterm elections and putting the state back on course to vote under boundaries adopted in 2022.

In a brief unsigned order, the justices granted an emergency request from the political action committee People Not Politicians and its executive director, Richard von Glahn, temporarily halting a federal judge’s ruling that required Missouri to use the newer map.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles emergency matters arising from the federal appeals court covering Missouri, referred the application to the full court. No justice publicly dissented, and the court offered no explanation for its decision, which is common in emergency proceedings.

The immediate effect is significant: Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins instructed local election officials to proceed with the congressional districts enacted in 2022.

Those boundaries currently produce a congressional delegation of six Republicans and two Democrats.

The new map, approved by Missouri’s Republican-controlled legislature during a 2025 special session called by Gov. Mike Kehoe (R), was designed in part to make the Kansas City-based 5th Congressional District more favorable to Republicans.

That seat has been represented since 2005 by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.

Under the 2022 map, Cleaver’s district centers heavily on Kansas City and portions of Jackson and Clay counties. The 2025 version substantially reconfigured the district by adding Republican-leaning rural territory, potentially changing its partisan makeup.

President Donald Trump had encouraged Missouri Republicans to undertake the mid-decade redistricting effort as the GOP sought additional House seats before the 2026 elections.

But the map quickly became entangled in a state constitutional fight.

People Not Politicians gathered more than 300,000 signatures seeking to force a statewide referendum on the new boundaries.

Hoskins rejected the referendum petition on Aug. 4, concluding that Missouri’s constitutional referendum provisions did not apply to congressional redistricting plans passed by the legislature.

Von Glahn and the group challenged that determination.

On Sept. 3, the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled that congressional redistricting legislation can be subjected to the state’s referendum process and that the petition was legally sufficient and timely.

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