Missouri's Congressional Map Flips Twice in One Afternoon

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who fields emergency requests out of Missouri, turned down the state's bid to reinstate its Republican-drawn congressional map before the November midterms.¹ He didn't explain why, which is normal for these orders, but the denial left in place a unanimous Missouri Supreme Court ruling from last week.¹ That ruling found the state's new map, known as HB 1, never legally took effect because a valid referendum petition had blocked it.³

Minutes later, a different court reversed the outcome. Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark, sitting in St. Louis, issued a 14-day restraining order requiring Missouri to use HB 1 after all.² He signed it seven minutes before the state's ballot deadline, in a separate lawsuit filed by Republican congressional candidates.² Clark's order noted Kavanaugh's denial directly.²

The fight over this map has run for nearly a year, and it isn't close to over. Lawmakers passed HB 1 last September to reshape Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City district, part of President Trump's push to get Republican-led states to redraw their maps outside the normal census cycle.³ Voters responded with more than 300,000 signatures demanding a referendum. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected the petition anyway, on the same day as the state's primary in August.³ The state Supreme Court reversed him last week and called his rejection wrong.³

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said Tuesday the state would follow Clark's order rather than the state court's.² Gov. Mike Kehoe called it "much-needed clarity" for voters and candidates.⁴ Opponents of the map have already filed notice to appeal Clark's ruling to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The legal fight hasn't ended. It's just switched courtrooms.

Candidates who won their primaries in August ran under HB 1's district lines. Whether those lines survive to November now depends on a two-week clock and whatever the 8th Circuit does with it.