Intensifying a night of litigious chaos that spanned four courts, the fight over Missouri’s U.S. House districts has returned to the state’s Supreme Court, which signaled just before midnight Tuesday that it was considering whether to hold its top election officer in contempt.
The fight over which U.S. House districts will be used in November’s general election remained unsettled on Tuesday night after contradictory decisions from Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh of the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal district judge in St. Louis.
The State Supreme Court’s decision to call in Secretary of State Denny Hoskins for a contempt hearing, scheduled for Thursday morning, reflected a new juncture in a rising battle over what appears on Missouri ballots and over which judges’ orders should be heeded.
Mr. Hoskins and his fellow Republican officials said Tuesday night that they would keep using congressional districts redrawn last year at President Trump’s request to benefit Republicans, following the federal district judge’s order instead of the State Supreme Court’s.
“I look forward to my day in court,” Mr. Hoskins said in an overnight social media post that cited the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The redrawn boundaries were used in last month’s primary election, but they were deemed invalid last week by the Missouri Supreme Court. The court’s order said that the previous lines must be used until a referendum was held on whether to switch to the redrawn districts.
Missouri officials warned of a constitutional breakdown and appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, but Justice Kavanaugh denied their appeal on Tuesday evening. For a moment, it seemed that the old boundaries would go back into effect, positioning Democrats to hold onto the Kansas City-area House seat that Republicans had hoped to flip.
But soon after Justice Kavanaugh’s decision was announced, word spread that a federal district judge in St. Louis had entered a conflicting order that instructed Mr. Hoskins to not change back to the old lines. Mr. Hoskins, along with Missouri’s governor and attorney general, quickly announced that they would follow the district judge’s ruling, setting off another round of frenzied court filings.
Opponents of the redrawn map immediately appealed the district judge’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which had taken no action as of early Wednesday morning. Those opponents also said that they would also ask Justice Kavanaugh, who oversees emergency requests from Missouri, to intervene.
Adding to the chaos, Tuesday was the deadline to finalize Missouri’s ballot. Several Missouri county clerks did not respond to interview requests on Tuesday night about the uncertainty.
The conflicting court orders followed a year of recriminations about Missouri’s congressional map. The state, which is led by Republicans, was among the first to join the redistricting arms race last year as Mr. Trump sought to boost his party’s odds of holding the House in the midterms.
By redrawing the lines outside the usual once-a-decade cycle, Missouri Republicans saw an opportunity to unseat one of the two Democrats in their state’s congressional delegation. State legislators passed the new map in a special session last September despite large protests and pleas from Democratic legislators.
In the months since, opponents of the new map have clashed repeatedly with Republican officials in court. The two sides have sparred over the legality of the redistricting effort, over the validity of a petition drive to force a statewide vote on the new lines, and over which court should have the final word on the boundaries.
After Mr. Hoskins said on Tuesday that he would forge ahead with using the redrawn boundaries — complying with the federal district judge’s order — redistricting opponents filed a motion seeking to have Mr. Hoskins held in contempt by the state’s high court.
“This court should make clear that regardless of other orders (except from the United States Supreme Court) the Missouri secretary of state must comply with this court’s injunction,” Charles W. Hatfield, a lawyer for the redistricting opponents, wrote in his motion with the State Supreme Court.
That court, which has five judges appointed by Republican governors and two appointed by Democrats, ruled unanimously against Mr. Hoskins last week.
Late on Tuesday night, Chief Justice W. Brent Powell scheduled a hearing on whether to hold Mr. Hoskins in contempt and instructed the secretary of state to appear in person.
Chief Justice Powell, who was appointed by a Republican governor, also asked Mr. Hoskins to reply in writing on Wednesday to concerns about his instructions to county election officials and his willingness to abide by court rulings.
“Denny Hoskins is hereby ordered to show cause, if any, why he should not be held in contempt for violating this court’s injunction,” Chief Justice Powell wrote in the single-page order.
Earlier on Tuesday evening, Mr. Hoskins had praised the federal district’s judge ruling, which he said “halts a full-on constitutional crisis.”
“I am proud to lead this charge,” he added.
Ann E. Marimow contributed reporting.