[UPDATE] Missouri asks the Supreme Court to reinstate its 7-1 congressional map three days before the ballot deadline

The filing. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed an emergency application at the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday, Sept. 5, asking the justices to revive the Republican-drawn congressional map known as HB 1. The state ruling. Two days earlier, on Thursday, Sept. 3, the state's own Supreme Court had ruled the map suspended and ordered a return to the 2022 district lines for the November election. That court also put HB 1 on the November ballot as a referendum (a public vote on whether a law passed by the legislature takes effect), after opponents submitted more than 300,000 signatures. The same day, it refused to pause its own ruling while Hanaway appealed. The argument. Hanaway's filing leans on the calendar. Missourians already voted under the HB 1 lines in the August primary, she argues, so scrapping them now would upend an election already underway. "No court in American history has ever given such an extraordinary remedy, which inflicts unprecedented chaos on Missouri," the application says. (TS: Maybe on the timing, but state courts tossing congressional maps is routine — Moore v. Harper said in 2023 that they can.) What next. Kavanaugh, who handles emergency matters from Missouri's circuit, set the opponents' response for noon Monday, Sept. 7. He can rule alone or send it to all nine justices, and has not said which. Missouri says it needs an answer by Tuesday, Sept. 8, to reprogram ballots; its own reply brief is also due that day, and it has asked for a decision by Sept. 13.