WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday blocked a congressional redistricting plan in Missouri, preventing Republicans from gaining an additional House seat and delivering a blow to President Trump's nationwide effort to redraw districts in GOP favor.
This marks the third time the high court has intervened against this specific redistricting proposal. The ruling requires Missouri to use the same district boundaries provided to voters in both 2022 and 2024, despite the state's August 4 primaries having used the now-rejected map.
The Supreme Court warned that changing electoral maps at this stage would create "electoral chaos." Missouri election officials had already begun mailing absentee ballots using the old district lines.
Missouri lawmakers passed the new map last year at Trump's direction as part of a broader nationwide strategy to draw more Republican-leaning districts and secure GOP control of the House. That larger effort tilted approximately nine or 10 additional districts in Republicans' favor, including Missouri's 5th District.
The blocked map aimed to increase Republican voter numbers in the 5th District and potentially oust Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. Opponents successfully gathered citizen signatures to place the map on the November ballot for voter approval.
Earlier this month, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the 2025 Republican-backed map never became law because of the ballot question. That court criticized Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins for proceeding with the map in the August primaries without voter approval.
The U.S. Supreme Court's Friday decision affirmed the state court's position, noting that the Missouri court had stated in May—prior to the primary—that the Republican map required voter approval before implementation.
Republicans had sued in federal court and secured backing from a federal judge and, last week, a federal appeals court. Those rulings sent the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which sided against Republican lawmakers.
Republicans argued for the map's use, citing that more than a million Missourians had already cast votes in the primary under those new boundaries. Opponents countered that the map lacked voter approval and accused Republican officials of intentionally prolonging the process to force its adoption.
