Missouri’s highest court on Tuesday upheld a mid-decade congressional redistricting plan that Republicans said was backed by President Donald Trump and designed to improve the GOP’s odds of gaining a House seat in the November midterm elections. In a decision issued by the Missouri Supreme Court, opponents argued the state constitution permits congressional boundary changes only after census data is certified, but the court ruled there was no explicit constitutional ban on lawmakers redrawing districts more often.
The Associated Press reported that the decision upheld the legislature’s new congressional map approved in September after Republicans in Texas also redrew their congressional districts. The Missouri case became part of a broader mid-decade redistricting push in multiple states, with court battles over when such changes can be made and whether they comply with state constitutional limits.
The new map took aim at political control in Missouri’s U.S. House delegation by changing district lines and shifting how the state’s boundaries are drawn across the Kansas City area and surrounding regions. The report said Missouri’s current House delegation under a 2022 map stands at six Republicans and two Democrats, and that the new districts are intended to help Republicans win a Kansas City-area seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by moving portions of his district into neighboring districts and stretching remaining areas into more rural, Republican-leaning territory.
While the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the plan, the litigation over whether the new map will be implemented was not described as over. Opponents sought to overturn the new districts through a referendum effort and submitted more than 300,000 petition signatures to put the map to a statewide vote, according to the Associated Press report.
Republican officials also told the court and public that candidates would proceed under the new lines with Missouri’s candidate filing deadline approaching. With one week remaining before the deadline, the report said six Republicans already had entered primary filings seeking to run against Cleaver under the new map, citing a declaration from Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway and Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, both Republicans.
However, the Associated Press said the outcome still could change because of additional lawsuits. The report said a trial judge had not ruled on another case from opponents contending the referendum signatures should automatically suspend the new map until a statewide vote can be held during the November election.
At the center of the Missouri Supreme Court’s reasoning was the interpretation of the word “when” in a state constitutional provision requiring the General Assembly to redraw congressional districts “when” new census data is certified. Attorneys for voters had argued that reading means redistricting is allowed only when there is current census data, while Hanaway’s office and other Republican legal positions argued that “when” sets a minimum timing rather than a prohibition, pointing to the absence of explicit limiting language such as “shall not,” “solely,” or “only.”
In a statement cited by the Associated Press, Hanaway said the decision “reinforced what we’ve known all along — the Missouri FIRST Map and mid-decade redistricting are constitutional.” Another Republican attorney, Marc Ellinger, was also cited as saying the ruling gives the GOP greater confidence to recruit and fund candidates for races in the changed districts.
The same day, the Missouri Supreme Court issued other election-related rulings. The court upheld the state’s voter photo identification requirement while determining the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to challenge it, and it struck down parts of a 2022 voting law that included provisions limiting absentee ballot application solicitation and requiring registration with the state to solicit more than 10 voter registration applications, with the court saying the rules violated constitutional free speech rights.
The Missouri case reflects a continuing pattern nationally in which legislatures and courts have grappled with how quickly states can redraw congressional districts mid-decade and how those changes affect competitiveness. The Associated Press report said Texas and Missouri adopted new House districts, while Republican-led North Carolina and Ohio also revised their districts in ways that could help Republicans; it also noted that California voters approved new districts in November that could help Democrats win more seats, and that other states—such as Utah, Virginia, and Florida—had legal and ballot steps under way over whether mid-decade redistricting plans can move forward.