Missouri Supreme Court blocks new electoral districts
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously prohibited the use in the November 2026 general election of new U.S. House of Representatives district boundaries backed by Donald Trump. The court also ordered a statewide vote in which voters must approve or reject the new district map.
As The Guardian World reports, the new districts were used in the August primaries. However, the court ruled that they cannot be used in the November election or thereafter until voters approve them. The district map adopted after the 2020 census remains in force for the November election.
Referendum on district boundaries
The court suspended the new map after citizens submitted signatures to hold a referendum. The ruling states that the petition was lawful, sufficient, and filed on time, while the secretary of state erroneously reached a different conclusion.
Missouri's Constitution does not explicitly determine whether the referendum procedure can be applied to a law on congressional redistricting. At the same time, the state Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional provision allowing a referendum on “any act” of the legislature also applies to such laws.
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Changes to the fifth district
After Trump called on Republicans to redraw district boundaries in their favor, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe convened a special legislative session last year. During it, the Republican majority adopted a new map that substantially changed the fifth district, represented by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver.
In December, opponents of the new map submitted more than 300,000 signatures seeking to put the issue to a vote. Republican Denny Hoskins, Missouri's secretary of state, rejected the petition on the day of the August primaries, saying that a referendum could not concern congressional redistricting. A lower court agreed with that position, but the state Supreme Court overturned the decision.
Lawyers for Hoskins and Republican party committees said that returning to the previous boundaries shortly before the general election could cause confusion. The Missouri Supreme Court's decision may still be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Missouri currently has six Republican representatives and two Democratic representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives. Under the new map, the fifth district was expanded eastward to include rural areas with a Republican advantage; according to the Associated Press, about 59% of its voters were new.
