Court Battles

Missouri Supreme Court upholds GOP-friendly congressional map

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by Zach Schonfeld - 05/12/26 5:45 PM ET

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by Zach Schonfeld - 05/12/26 5:45 PM ET

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The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously rejected challenges to a Republican-friendly congressional map on Tuesday that is expected to hand the party an additional House seat in the midterms.

The rulings landed just hours after the court heard oral arguments in three underlying lawsuits attempting to block the new lines.

“This Court’s review of the Missouri residents’ appeals is limited to determining only the legality – not the prudence or popularity – of the map,” Chief Justice W. Brent Powell wrote in one of the rulings.

It paves the way for Republicans’ map that would break up Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s (D-Mo.) seat to go into effect this November. It’s set to give the GOP an additional pickup opportunity in the House, building on the seats the party redrew to its liking in other red states.

Tuesday’s decision is the final word unless the U.S. Supreme Court somehow intervenes. The lawsuits concern rules embedded in Missouri’s constitution, and the U.S. high court justices can only get involved if the dispute raises a federal issue.

Two of the cases challenged the map under a state constitutional requirement that the districts be compact. Missouri voters asserted a lower court was wrong to turn away their claims that splitting the Kansas City area violates the requirement.

“The circuit court did not refuse to consider Appellants’ evidence; rather, it merely gave this evidence little weight,” Powell wrote.

The other suit alleged that Republicans’ map was automatically blocked when voters last December gathered signatures to force a referendum vote on the redistricting effort and submitted their petition to the state.

“Had the drafters intended a referendum petition filing to automatically suspend any act of the General Assembly at issue in the referendum petition, they would have so stated,” Judge Ginger Gooch wrote in that decision.

The battles follow an earlier case at the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled 4-3 in March that state lawmakers had the authority to redistrict mid-decade. That decision didn’t concern the design itself.

Republicans’ ability to move forward in Missouri adds to a string of recent victories for the party in the redistricting wars.

Virginia’s top court last week blocked Democrats’ map that would give the party up to five pickup opportunities, and Republicans in Louisiana and Alabama are moving closer to completing redrawing of their maps.

Though earlier on Tuesday, the South Carolina Senate defeated a Republican-led effort to redistrict there.

Updated at 6:02 p.m. EDT

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