With voting two weeks away, Missouri isn’t set on which congressional map to use
Missouri is in a legal predicament over which congressional maps it should use in the November election after competing U.S. Supreme Court and federal district court rulings left many confused. The state is on the clock because absentee voting begins on Sept. 22.
A denial from the U.S. Supreme Court told Missouri officials to follow a unanimous state Supreme Court ruling and use maps passed in 2022. Minutes later, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Stephen Clark issued a temporary restraining order directing the state to use the 2025 congressional district maps. The competing orders put Missouri’s elections in a tailspin while voting groups and Secretary of State Denny Hoskins litigate which maps are to be used based on voter input, or lack thereof.
“A lot of it’s kind of unclear,” University at Buffalo Assistant Professor of Politics Shawn Donahue told Straight Arrow.
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The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals declined Wednesday to reverse Clark’s order that left the 2025 map intact. Voting advocacy group People Not Politicians appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which could again land on Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s desk.
Kavanaugh oversees the Sixth and Eighth Appellate Courts’ emergency petitions. The justice denied Hoskins’ application for a stay Tuesday with no legal analysis, nor did the justice bring the issue to the full U.S. Supreme Court. These emergency petitions often receive decisions without elaboration to expedite an issue. Donahue said the denial puts Missouri’s high court decision in place.
Additionally, the state’s Supreme Court ruled that a referendum must appear on the November ballot. It asks voters to approve or deny adoption of the 2025 congressional map.
At the same time, the Missouri Supreme Court sought to hold Hoskins in contempt on Tuesday for continued use of 2025 maps passed by the state legislature, also known as HB1. In the show cause order, Chief Justice W. Brent Powell ordered Hoskins to appear for a Thursday hearing to explain how his orders to use HB1 didn’t violate the court’s injunction and why he believes the court’s injunction is no longer in effect due to Kavanaugh’s denial.
Other states aren’t likely to face this type of time crunch, Donahue said. Rhode Island and Delaware have the last few primaries before the General Election, and elections officials are set on which maps to use.
“What we have right now is just a lot of confusion,” Donahue said. “Developments seem to come by the hour.”
Orders, appeals put state in limbo
Since the legal challenges involve elections, Donahue said the “Purcell principle” should keep federal courts largely out of the matter.
He noted People Not Politicians, the group fighting the new maps, filed an emergency administrative stay with the Eighth Appellate Court Tuesday evening, which was denied Wednesday.
If the 2025 map is thrown out, Donahue said it could force primary winners to run on old maps. He noted that no good conclusion exists other than holding a new primary in November, then a runoff in December.
“It doesn’t feel like there’s time to have a primary and a general election before that,” he said.
He expects election administrators, not voters, to bear the brunt of the confusion. The only voters would be those whose congressional districts were split around Kansas City and suburban St. Louis.
Missouri court holding Hoskins in contempt
The contempt case before the state Supreme Court centers on an email Hoskins sent directing state election officials to use the contested 2025 congressional map. Opponents of the new map raised concerns about Hoskins’ conduct and said the federal court order doesn’t instruct the state to use the HB1 map.
The state Supreme Court ruled on Sept. 3 that the map is nullified since voters haven’t decided on it, and it is “not the law and has never been the law.”
Donahue noted that Hoskins “ran out the clock” on a signature collection, forcing a referendum vote on the map. The group behind it, People Not Politicians, said in a March 23 release that they had enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. His efforts to block it failed when the state Supreme Court ruled Sept. 3 that the question must appear on the November ballot.
Hoskins wrote that Missouri voters already voted on those maps in the Aug. 3 primary, and pulling the map would force voters to elect someone they had no role in nominating.