A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order requiring Missouri to use a Republican-friendly congressional map for the November midterms. The ruling came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in a state-level dispute over redistricting boundaries, setting up a clash between state and federal court orders.
The legal battle over Missouri’s congressional boundaries intensified when U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark granted a 14-day temporary restraining order in the Eastern District court. The decision directs state election officials to utilize the map passed by the General Assembly and signed into law last year by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe. The intervention gives a temporary win to state Republicans who sought to preserve the map ahead of the midterm elections.
Federal Court Intervention and the Supreme Court Rebuff
Judge Clark’s ruling arrived just hours after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh declined to take up an emergency appeal filed by Missouri Republican officials. The state GOP had asked the high court to overturn a decision by the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled the new districts could not be used in November because they were superseded by a citizen petition.
In his order, Judge Clark wrote that plaintiffs faced irreparable harm
because many Missouri voters would have to cast their general-election votes for candidates whom they had no role in nominating,
as reported by the outlet. Representative Bob Onder, a Missouri Republican who filed the underlying federal lawsuit, praised the decision.
“I’m very very pleased with the results. I think Judge Clark got it right.”
Rep. Bob Onder (R-Mo.), via New York Post
Onder argued that forcing a map change two months before the election—after more than a million voters participated in the primaries—created an absurd situation.
Disputed Maps and the Genesis of the Redistricting Clash
The disputed congressional map was designed to favor Republicans by redrawing the 5th Congressional District, held by Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver. The revised boundaries reassigned parts of Kansas City to neighboring Republican districts and extended Cleaver’s district eastward into rural GOP-leaning areas. Missouri became the second Republican-led state, following Texas, to redraw its map at the urging of President Trump.
While the new districts were used during the August primaries, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the map never officially took effect. The state high court determined that a citizen petition led by the group People Not Politicians, which gathered thousands of signatures to force a statewide referendum, retroactively froze the redistricting legislation in December.
State Attorney General Catherine Hanaway had warned the U.S. Supreme Court that altering district lines between the primary and general elections would trigger unprecedented chaos
and create a federal-election-administration disaster.
Despite those warnings, Justice Kavanaugh denied the application to put the state court ruling on hold.
Conflicting Directives and Ongoing Legal Appeals
Following Judge Clark’s federal order, state officials prepared to implement the Republican-friendly boundaries. Governor Kehoe thanked the district court judge for providing much-needed clarity for Missouri voters and the election process
on the deadline day for ballot changes. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins also designated the referendum as Proposition A on the November ballot while acknowledging the federal court’s binding directive on map usage.
However, opponents of the redistricting effort vow to continue fighting the federal ruling. Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, criticized the state leadership’s response.
“The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously held that [the new map] is not and has not been legally enacted and will only be legally enacted by the vote of the people of Missouri per our Constitution.”
Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, via New York Post
Von Glahn accused state leaders of defying the Missouri Supreme Court
and announced plans to file an immediate appeal and request for a stay with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit and Justice Kavanaugh. The 8th Circuit already rejected an initial request for a temporary stay on Wednesday, noting that it either lacked jurisdiction or that the necessary stay factors had not been satisfied at this early stage of the briefing.
