The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 10 put a federal judge’s order on hold that would have allowed Missouri to use a new Republican-drawn congressional map in November, keeping the state’s 2022 map in place for the midterm elections.
Hours later, Missouri officials gave up their legal fight and agreed to use the 2022 map in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. The change of position came after the Missouri Supreme Court found Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in contempt for moving forward with a 2025 map.
Hoskins agreed to follow the state high court’s ruling and use the 2022 map. The court then ruled that he had purged himself of the contempt by changing course.
Missouri held primary elections on Aug. 4 using the 2025 “Missouri First” map approved by the Republican-controlled General Assembly.
The decision in People Not Politicians v. Onder took the form of an unsigned order. The order was not explained. No justices dissented.
The stay put the federal district court order on hold while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit considered the case. With Hoskins giving up the fight over the 2025 map, the appeal became moot, or legally irrelevant.
The stay came after Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Sept. 8 denied in a separate case the state’s request to pause the Missouri Supreme Court’s unanimous Sept. 3 ruling that barred use of the 2025 congressional map in the Nov. 3 midterms. President Donald Trump supported the map.
The state’s high court ruled that the 2025 map never took effect because a valid referendum petition that was pending had the effect of suspending it.
The court held that the 2025 map must first be approved by voters in a referendum before it can take effect. The court ordered that the referendum question be placed on the Nov. 3 ballot. If approved, it can be used in future elections.
The state court said the 2025 map approved by the state General Assembly “is not the law and has never been the law.”
“There is only one valid congressional redistricting in effect—the congressional redistricting the General Assembly established in 2022,” the court said.
Opponents of the 2025 map late on Sept. 9 had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Sept. 8 temporary restraining order from Judge Stephen R. Clark of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri that allowed the state to hold the general elections on Nov. 3 using the 2025 map, which favors Republicans.
Clark said Missouri could only use the 2025 map authorized by House Bill 1 (HB 1), because doing otherwise would violate the U.S. Constitution. State officials said at the time that they would follow Clark’s ruling.
“Using any map other than HB 1’s for the general election creates two classes of voters: those who happen to stay in their HB 1 congressional districts, and those who do not,” Clark said in his ruling.
Without the restraining order, many Missouri voters would have “to cast their general-election votes for candidates whom they had no role in nominating,” he said.
Because the primary already took place and the clock cannot be turned back, Missouri “must honor the equal right to vote of all its eligible voters, regardless of geography,” Clark said at the time.
The 2022 map, drawn by the General Assembly after the 2020 census, was designed to give Republicans a 6–2 edge. The 2025 map, drawn as part of a mid-decade redistricting, was designed to give them a 7–1 advantage.
Later on Sept. 10, after the Missouri Supreme Court concluded the contempt hearing, Hoskins said the state will use the 2022 map.
“Following the United States Supreme Court’s stay, the only governing court order in effect is from the Missouri Supreme Court,” he said in a statement.
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