Supreme Court Pauses Ruling Upholding New Missouri Congressional Map
SCOTUS issued the stay after a federal judge restored the 2025 congressional map even though Missouri already held the primaries using that map.
The drama around Missouri’s Congressional map continues.
Background:
- September 3: Missouri Supreme Ct Throws Out New Congressional Maps — After Primaries Already Held
- September 8: Kavanaugh rejected a bid to block the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision.
- September 8: Federal judge restores the new map
Today: Supreme Court paused the federal judge’s decision, restoring the 2022 map for the November elections.
No sign of a dissent. No reason for the stay.
🚨 The Supreme Court has paused a federal judge’s ruling requiring Missouri to use its 2025 congressional map, allowing the state to return to its 2022 map for the November election while the case continues. pic.twitter.com/U6n5JFMyNY
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) September 10, 2026
Look, I understand SCOTUS not wanting to interfere with a state constitution.
But Missouri already held its primaries using the 2025 Congressional map, not the 2022 map.
That’s why Chief Judge Stephen Clark restored the map a few hours after SCOTUS struck it down in a different case.
Republican candidates and voters filed a separate lawsuit, so it’s not the same one the Missouri Supreme Court heard.
“Plaintiffs face irreparable harm absent a TRO because many Missouri voters would have to cast their general-election votes for candidates whom they had no role in nominating,” wrote Clark. “Candidates who had no choice but to campaign and raise money in the HB 1 districts that Missouri’s highest election authority presented to them, have spent their funds and campaign efforts in districts that would no longer exist.”
Therefore, using any other map than the new map “would disenfranchise primary-election voters and undermine the nominations of candidates chosen in the primaries, leading to ‘certain’ and ‘great’ harm, not merely ‘speculative’ or ‘possible’ harm.”
The Eighth Circuit refused to issue a stay, so the case ended up at SCOTUS.
SCOTUS did not reject the case. A stay means that the lawsuit can proceed in the Eighth Circuit.
But the fact remains that Missouri already used the 2025 map, meaning the decisions could affect federal elections.
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Comments
This is ridiculous.
What is the Supreme Court doing?
The revised Texas, Missouri , south carolina maps have a significant reduction in geographic gerrymandering.
The new virginia district map and extreme levels of geographic gerrymandering.
The VRA required severe geographic gerrymandering.
I wonder if the only way to resolve this is to delay the election in MO, which itself would violate federal election statutes.
There’s still time. The only real hard deadlines are the ‘Tuesday next after the first Monday in Nov’ aka ‘election day’ AND the date 45 days prior to mail out traditional absentee ballots to Military and overseas voters.
They have 9 days to future it out. The parties involved COULD just agree to use the 2022 map, void the prior primary results, set next Tuesday as the modified primary date those HoR contests and they’d have a very long weekend to campaign, have a primary election based on the actual CD map to be used in Nov with a couple days after the election to recount if required.
I suspect the parties involved from Political party to individual candidates to the various State Officers/Officials will refuse to put such a plan into motion b/c at this point each sees chaos as preferred so they can point fingers. At some point when the boat is taking water/sinking it becomes more important in the immediate term to bail water/plug the leak to save the boat and then after that is done worry about assigning blame for the hole.
The legislature could void the primaries and simply authorize the major parties to hold firehouse primaries or conventions to select their nominees.
I don’t think the legislature is needed if the political parties themselves already have such a provision. If the parties don’t then as a private org with its own bylaws the legislature can’t/shouldn’t try and force their hand on the way to select their nominee under these circumstances.
The Supreme Court Coirt has gone insane
Do they think they are eating brownie points with the Democrat commies if they win the house and senate?
No, they will destroy the SC as America knows it
Loser Roberts and his usual cartel on the court, yes Amy and Kav along with the always dependable 3 lunatic commie women
Federalism: State Supreme Courts get the final say in interpreting state constitutions.
Missouri AG gambled on a delay tactic and lost.
I am not a fan of ballot referendums (California )… but if missourians want to change that they certainly can change their own Constitution
The Mo SoS held primaries in invalid districts because he slow-walked the verification of the signatures. It seems to me they have no time for real primaries, but could hold firehouse primaries or party conventions this weekend.
I think the number of Supreme Court Justices should be increased to 3,459. They should be elected by all of the different races, religions, sexes and figments of Talarico’s imagination with each race, religion, sex and figment of Talarico’s imagination having 25 votes and that am appointed as Beneficent Dictator by none other than me. I will not take a salary for my work, other than a daily ration of scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast with ersatz butter, 6 oz each of dark and white chocolate and Peach Tea.
You had me until “ersatz butter.”
Suddenly, the concept of ‘latches’ that was waved around so vigorously just goes away, and the election takes another abrupt turn in the middle of printing ballots based on the primary that has *already* taken place.
Lawyers as a profession are hired with an outcome in mind, to find a way to ge there. Somehow.
Then, they end up in government…
Could try installing people to administer things who’s PoV is having elections, not ensuring who wins.
Every state should put in its constitution a rule that “Any citizen shall be able to drive from any place in a congressional, state legislature, city council, school board, etc. district to any other place in that district without leaving the district, unless it is impossible to draw all the state, county, city, and school districts without having one or more districts that fail this test. if the state legislature, city council, school board, etc. certifies that it is impossible to meet the test, and any person or entity who prepares a map that meets the test shall be given state tax-free one million dollars, with annual adjustments for inflation, and the person certifying the map that failed the test shall be guilty of a felony and imprisoned for no more than 5 years and barred from all offices paid with taxpayer money.”
I guess if you live in Missouri you may as well not even vote. Obviously it doesn’t count for anything since we already had our primaries and then they change the map after. What a bunch of b*******
“Popcorn, popcorn, my congressional district I voted in during the primary for some popcorn!” – Don’t be a Richard (probably)
Space bar space bar space bar.
SCOTUS: You know that thing we didn’t want to interfere with in Missouri? We’re now going to interfere with it in Missouri.
“The first thing we do is, let’s k/ll all the lawyers.” – Roll with it Henry IV (probably)
IMO, for whatever that’s worth, Kavanaugh totally screwed up. I totally sense Roberts breathing down his neck as well, encouraging him to have written that one sentence ruling that kicked off this whole chaotic nightmare as Roberts has a personal – not judicial – resistance to ever going anywhere. near ANY election cases.
This is now a totally unnecessary and tangled web they themselves , Roberts and Kavanaugh have woven, and which could legally and justifiably been totally avoided. .
Anyone with half a brain could have seen this train wreck coming by making them switch horse in mid-stream! (Sorry for so many metaphors but…)
They should have negated the MO SC and let nature take it course and live to fight another day -After the election and the referendum have been decided.
.
Brett Kavanaugh could never figure out who the enemy is. That should have been crystal clear to him during his confirmation process. Maybe he isn’t as smart as they say he is.
Note that Dem States that are resisting Trump’s attempt to clean up mail-in voting are already claiming “It’s too late.” But when it’s actually “too late,” liberal judges have no problem ignoring the fact.
Worse, the US Constitution specifically gives State Legislatures authority to redistrict. The D’s case here is based on a petition to create a referendum on redistricting that would override the State Legislature.
No State can pass any law stripping the Legislature’s authority here, granted by the US Constitution, and handing the power over to a referendum.