Appeals court orders Missouri to use Trump-backed congressional map, setting up another Supreme Court battle

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Missouri must use a GOP-friendly congressional redistricting plan for November’s election but put that ruling on hold for a week so the Supreme Court could review the dispute.
The ruling from the US 8th Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest twist in a whiplash legal wrangling over the map of the state’s eight congressional districts, injecting another round of uncertainty, as it does not take effect immediately but rather sets up another round of appeals.
The Missouri Supreme Court previously said the 7-1 Republican-leaning map adopted by the legislature last year could not be used because of a referendum challenge brought against it under the state constitution. Instead, the court ordered election officials to use an older, 6-2 redistricting plan even though the 2025 plan had been used in the state’s primary. The US Supreme Court declined to reverse that ruling, and it then paused a federal judge’s ruling that sought to revive the 7-1 map.
The new ruling from the 8th Circuit said requiring voters to cast general election ballots on the older plan violates the US Constitution.
It relied on estimates put forward by a conservative group in the case to conclude “that more than 1.4 million Missourians could not vote for the congressional district nominees who will appear on their November 2026 general election ballot, and more than a quarter-million Missourians who voted in the August 2026 primary election cast a vote for a congressional district candidate who now cannot represent them.”
Missouri’s new map targeted the 5th Congressional District, held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, by breaking up its Kansas City base and stretching it into rural and Republican-leaning parts of the state.
The group that launched the referendum campaign against the GOP-leaning map noted in a statement reacting to the new ruling that “Ballots have been printed, and Missourians have already voted.”
“Thousands more will vote before this order seeks to take effect,” the statement from People Not Politicians said. “Officials should stop wasting taxpayers’ money on pointless legal action and instead focus on administering our elections.”