Missouri asks Supreme Court to revive Republican-drawn congressional map

By Andrew Chung

Sept 5 (Reuters) – Missouri asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to allow it to use a Republican-drawn congressional map in November’s midterm elections aimed at helping the party preserve its narrow U.S. House majority.

In an emergency request, Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s office asked the court to suspend a state Supreme Court ruling that blocked the map. The decision preserved the Kansas City-based seat of longtime Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver, whose district would have been dismantled under the redrawn boundaries.

The decision forces Missouri to use an older electoral map in November’s elections even though the state had already held primary elections in August using the new map, Hanaway’s office said in the filing.

“No court in American history has ever given such an extraordinary remedy, which inflicts unprecedented chaos on Missouri,” the filing said.

Missouri Republicans adopted the map as part of a broader effort backed by President Donald Trump to redraw congressional districts in ways that could benefit Republican candidates – n effort that repeatedly drew the U.S. Supreme Court into disputes over congressional redistricting. 

A major Supreme Court ruling limiting the reach of the landmark Voting Rights Act and subsequent actions by the court permitted several conservative Southern states to eliminate districts with significant Black populations, allowing Republicans to eventually emerge as the winners of an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting war. 

While both Republican- and Democratic-controlled states drew new maps, Republicans improved their chances in 16 districts, including Cleaver’s seat in Missouri, while Democrats secured an edge in six districts. 

Republicans hold a narrow 219-214 majority in the U.S. House, including one independent who caucuses with Republicans.  

The Missouri Supreme Court, which includes five Republican-appointed judges, unanimously ruled on September 3 that the map must be approved by voters in a November referendum before it can take effect. 

Hanaway in a social media post had said that the ruling “violates federal law and has thrust our state into a full-fledged constitutional crisis.”

A group formed to oppose the new map, People Not Politicians, had collected enough signatures to file for a referendum under a provision in the state constitution that authorizes a ballot measure to approve any legislative act. 

Missouri’s Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, the state’s top election official, rejected the petition, finding that state constitutional language does not apply to congressional redistricting. The Missouri court dismissed that argument.

“The referendum petition was legal, sufficient, and timely, and the secretary incorrectly concluded otherwise,” Judge Ginger Gooch wrote for the court. The redrawn map “will not go into effect unless and until approved by voters,” Gooch said.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung and Joseph Ax; Editing by Howard Goller and Toby Chopra)