Supreme Court Blocks Republican-Backed Missouri Map for Third Time

The Supreme Court on Friday, with no noted dissents, blocked a federal appeals court ruling that would have required Missouri to use a Republican-drawn 2025 congressional map during an ongoing election.

• 3 times this month the Supreme Court has acted against the 2025 map.
• 2022 map gives Republicans a 6-2 advantage; 2025 map would have made it 7-1.
• Absentee and overseas ballots printed under the 2022 map had already been mailed.
• Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City-area Democratic seat was the district at stake.

Why it matters: The Court said switching maps in the middle of an active election would create electoral chaos. It ordered lower courts not to require or permit use of the 2025 map in the 2026 election.

• Missouri was one of several Republican-led states that redrew congressional maps mid-decade at President Trump's urging to strengthen Republican House majorities.
• Control of the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority, turns partly on outcomes in contested states this November.

How 32 sources split on this story

Where they split: The legal dispute centers on whether the primary having been held under the 2025 map required the general election to use it too, or whether the Missouri Supreme Court's state-law ruling and the balloting already underway settled the matter.

What’s next: Missouri will conduct the November general election using 2022 district lines.

• Voters will decide via a November ballot measure whether to adopt the 2025 map permanently.
• Whether candidates who ran in the August primary under the 2025 map remain valid nominees under the 2022 districts is unresolved.
• How courts handle the constitutional question the 8th Circuit raised — about voters casting primary and general ballots in different districts — has not been fully settled.