Ongoing4 earlier updates17 days

This story has run 5 times over 17 days, starting Sep 10.

Sep 10Missouri Supreme Court summons Hoskins after he ordered officials to use a blocked congressional map.
Sep 11UpdateSupreme Court blocks Missouri from using 7-1 Republican map in November
Sep 13UpdateMissouri election officials warned the restored 6-2 map will confuse voters and disrupt races.
Sep 23UpdateAppeals court orders Missouri to use 7-1 Republican map but stays ruling one week
Sep 27UpdateSupreme Court blocks Missouri's 7-1 GOP map a third time, keeping the 6-2 map for Nov. 3 — this issue

Supreme Court blocks Missouri's 7-1 GOP map a third time, keeping the 6-2 map for Nov. 3

Courts and the administration

Political Guyentist · September 27, 20261 min read

The Supreme Court's unsigned order blocked Missouri's 7-1 map a third time with no noted dissents, so the 6-2 map from 2022 governs the Nov. 3 election already underway. Absentee voting under the 2022 map began this week, so the justices halted the Eighth Circuit's revival of the 2025 map.

Catch upwhat happened before · 4 earlier issues

Sept. 6: Missouri asked the Supreme Court to reinstate its 7-1 map, three days before the state's ballot deadline.
Sept. 8: Justice Brett Kavanaugh left the 6-2 map in place; hours later, federal Judge Stephen Clark ordered the 7-1 map for 14 days.
Sept. 24: Map opponents asked the Supreme Court to block the 7-1 map again.

Sep 23UpdateAppeals court orders Missouri to use 7-1 Republican map but stays ruling one week

3 earlier issues

The stakesThe 2022 map elects 6 Republicans and 2 Democrats; the blocked 2025 map would have favored Republicans in 7 of 8 seats.3 details

The 2022 map elects 6 Republicans and 2 Democrats; the blocked 2025 map would have favored Republicans in 7 of 8 seats.
The order leaves in place a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that the 2025 map cannot take effect unless voters approve it in a November referendum.
The 2025 map targeted the seat of Emanuel Cleaver (Rep-D Missouri).

Missouri's 8 House seats under each map

What we’re less sure of4 of 7 claims

Medium
The order blocked the Eighth Circuit's revival of the 2025 map because absentee voting under the 2022 map had begun that week.
The story presents this as the Court's rationale without quoting the order. The per curiam and Democracy Docket's and Reason/Volokh's Purcell analyses support an election-timing basis, but the specific 'absentee voting began this week' trigger is the desk's paraphrase.
Medium
On Sept. 8 Justice Brett Kavanaugh left the 6-2 map in place, and hours later federal Judge Stephen Clark ordered the 7-1 map for 14 days.
SCOTUSblog confirms a Sept. 8 emergency order. No listed source explicitly carries Kavanaugh acting alone, Judge Clark's same-day order or the 14-day term, so the timeline is only partially supported.
Medium
On Sept. 6 Missouri asked the Supreme Court to reinstate its 7-1 map, three days before the state's ballot deadline.
The request is plausible given SCOTUSblog's three-order timeline. The exact date and the 'three days before the ballot deadline' framing are not explicitly carried by a named source in the list.
Medium
The legal back-and-forth shifted more than 1 million voters between districts, nearly 1 in 4 statewide.
The 1 million figure comes from a single source, the PBS NewsHour/AP report. The 'nearly 1 in 4 statewide' ratio appears to be the desk's own derivation, and the story does not attribute either figure.