The United States Supreme Court has declined to reinstate a Republican-backed congressional map in Missouri, leaving in place an older map for November’s midterm elections. On Tuesday, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles emergency matters from Missouri, rejected the state’s request to put the new map into effect. He did not refer the case to the full nine-member court nor explain his decision. The decision is a setback for President Donald Trump and his Republican Party, which had backed the redistricting effort as part of a broader push to improve their electoral chances.
The new Republican-backed map would have given the party a better chance of winning an extra seat in the US House of Representatives by carving up Missouri’s Democratic-leaning 5th congressional district. But the outcome of the legal battle remains unclear. In the hours after Justice Kavanaugh’s decision, a federal court in Missouri temporarily blocked the older congressional map from being used. That decision by US District Judge Stephen Clark, a Trump appointee, requires Missouri to use the new Republican-backed map for the November midterms.
His order will remain in effect for 14 days while courts consider the dispute. Opponents of the new map have already filed an appeal. Tuesday’s contrasting court decisions are likely to boost confusion in Missouri, with less than two months to go before the midterm race. The dispute centers on a congressional map approved by Missouri Republicans in 2025.
Missouri joined several other right-leaning states, including Texas, in heeding Trump’s call to redraw their congressional districts to favour Republican candidates. The new boundaries would have broken up the 5th congressional district, currently held by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver. The district includes much of Kansas City, but the new map would have seen parts of the older district shifted into neighbouring Republican-held districts. Opponents of the partisan redistricting effort, however, gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures to force the new map to be put up for a vote.
That triggered the ongoing legal battle. Missouri’s Republican officials refused to accept the petition as legal, sparking a lawsuit. The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that voters must approve the Republican-backed map in a statewide referendum before it can be used. Kavanaugh’s decision on Tuesday would have allowed last week’s decision to stand.
But Clark’s subsequent ruling has added another layer of uncertainty to the issue. Also complicating the legal dynamics of the case is the fact that Missouri has already held its party primaries using the Republican-backed map. Opponents of the map argue that Republican officials intentionally dismissed the referendum petition shortly before the primary, with no time to appeal. Missouri’s Republican attorney general, Catherine Hanaway, argued that reverting to the older map would interfere with the election process, given that the primary was decided with the new map.
Hanaway also said the state “is prepared to follow and comply with” the Clark’s Tuesday order, which she said “binds the state to using” the new congressional districts. At stake is Republican control over the US House. Republicans hold a narrow majority of 219 positions in the 435-seat chamber, including one right-leaning independent. Democrats hold 214 seats, meaning the race for control of the chamber is likely to come down to a handful of elections.
As a result of Trump’s mid-decade redistricting push, Republicans improved their chances in roughly 16 districts across the country, including Cleaver’s seat in Missouri. Democrats, meanwhile, have gained an advantage in six districts.
