[UPDATE] Missouri asks the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate its 7-1 House map, with a Tuesday, Sept. 8 ballot deadline
Justice Brett Kavanaugh gave the map's opponents until Monday, Sept. 7, to respond; the state says voters already cast ballots under the map in the August primary.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, Sept. 4, to put the state's new Republican-drawn congressional map back in place for the November election. That map, passed as House Bill 1 (HB 1), would redraw Missouri's eight U.S. House districts. A day earlier, on Thursday, Sept. 3, the Missouri Supreme Court had thrown it out for now: it ordered the state back to its 2022 district lines for November and told the secretary of state to put HB 1 on the November ballot as a referendum (a public vote on whether a law stands). Opponents had gathered more than 300,000 signatures to force that vote. On Friday the state court refused to pause its own ruling while the appeal goes forward. The state's argument is timing. HB 1 was already used in the August primary, and Missourians voted under its lines. "No court in American history has ever given such an extraordinary remedy, which inflicts unprecedented chaos on Missouri," the filing says. (TS: The claim is the state's own; it appears in Missouri's emergency application to the Supreme Court.) What next. Kavanaugh set a deadline of noon Monday, Sept. 7, for the map's opponents to respond. Missouri says it needs an answer by Tuesday, Sept. 8, the deadline in state law to finalize November ballots, and has asked the Court to rule by Sept. 13.
PREVIOUSLY
- Dec. 2025 — Opponents filed a referendum petition against HB 1. Under Missouri law, a valid petition suspends the law until voters decide it.
- Aug. 2026 — Missouri held its primary using the HB 1 lines.
- Thu Sept. 3 — The Missouri Supreme Court ruled the petition valid, restored the 2022 map for November, and ordered HB 1 onto the ballot.
- Fri Sept. 4 — The same court refused to pause its ruling during the appeal.
What the two maps do to Missouri's eight House seats:
- Current 2022 lines: 6 Republicans, 2 Democrats
- HB 1 lines, by 2024 presidential results: 7 Republican-leaning seats, 1 Democratic
- The seat that moves: Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City-based 5th, from D+23 to R+17
- How HB 1 does it: splits Kansas City across three districts and adds Lafayette, Johnson and Pettis counties
RELATED
Missouri Supreme Court orders the HB 1 map onto the November ballot as a referendum, certification due Sept. 8
The court set aside a fight over roughly 102,800 disputed signatures, holding that the petition had enough valid names either way.