Missouri cannot use a congressional map that’s subject to voter approval in its November election, the U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday. The order resolved confusion over which maps the state can use in the upcoming election after voters cast their primary ballots on an updated boundary map.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who oversees the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, approved a voting group’s request to forbid Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins from using a congressional map that the state legislature passed in 2025. The map, if used, would give Republicans a possible advantage heading into the midterm election.
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The group People Not Politicians submitted the appeal on Wednesday, a day after U.S. District Court Chief Justice Stephen Clark ruled that Missouri can and should use the new map. Clark said that the state already voted using the map in the Aug. 4 primary, and tossing it would disenfranchise voters forced to elect lawmakers from primaries they couldn’t vote in.
Hoskins said in a statement that, with Kavanaugh’s decision, he’s directing election officials to use the 2022 map.
People Not Politicians Executive Director Richard von Glahn said in a statement that the decision left Missouri voters in charge of which maps should be implemented. His group gathered more than 300,000 signatures to appear on the November ballot. Hoskins previously decertified the petition, but the Missouri high court ruled on Sept. 3 that the referendum must appear on the ballot.
“Missourians don’t need a Secretary of State who manufactures confusion; they need one who follows the law,” von Glahn said.
University at Buffalo Assistant Professor of Politics Shawn Donahue told Straight Arrow that Kavanaugh’s ruling is still complicated as it pauses Clark’s order while the lawsuit is appealed in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court rejected an appeal Wednesday due to lack of jurisdiction and proof of harm.
“It seems at first glance that SCOTUS does not seem to want to have lower federal courts disturb the Missouri Supreme Court ruling,” he wrote.
Donahue expects Missouri will take an aggressive approach in the appellate court knowing the three-judge panel was appointed by Republican presidents. He added that Kavanaugh did send the application to the full court, but didn’t note any dissents.
“But for now, it would seem to put the 2022 map back as the map that will be used,” Donahue wrote. “A big question is still who the candidates will be for the general election.”
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