Judges corner GOP lawyers over move to block voters from redistricting fight

Missouri's Supreme Court grilled attorneys defending Secretary of State Denny Hoskins on Wednesday, repeatedly pressing them to explain why voters shouldn't get a say on the state's new gerrymandered congressional map this November.

The case, reported on by the Missouri Independent, marks the final legal showdown before Election Day over a redistricting plan Republicans rammed through during a 2025 special session. At stake isn't just whether the referendum, known as Proposition A, lands on the ballot — the ruling will also determine which district lines Missourians actually vote under on November 3, with real consequences for control of Congress.

Hoskins declared the referendum petition insufficient on August 4, arguing neither the Missouri nor U.S. Constitution allows a statewide vote on congressional redistricting, backed by an opinion from Attorney General Catherine Hanaway. A Cole County judge sided with Hoskins, prompting the sponsoring PAC, People Not Politicians, which gathered more than 300,000 signatures, to appeal.

Judges zeroed in on a potentially fatal flaw: Hoskins never actually included the text of Hanaway's legal opinion in his official certification rejecting the petition.

"What authority do you have that the secretary can incorporate anything they want and staple it to their certification?" Judge Zel Fischer asked.

Attorneys defending the decision argued that even if a referendum is technically legal, the primary has already happened and candidates have built their campaigns around the new map, so voters should stick with it in November.

"Anytime an election is looming, [a court] has to consider the impact of its decision on the electorate," attorney John Gore argued.

The stakes are concrete: the new map, rushed into law at the urging of President Donald Trump last year, was drawn specifically to flip the 5th District red, pitting Republican state Sen. Rick Brattin against longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who's cleared 55 percent of the vote in all but two elections since 2004.

Chief Justice Brent Powell pushed back on the delay argument, noting the court already ruled in May that the new map wouldn't take effect if the referendum qualified — meaning Hoskins could have resolved this months ago instead of waiting until August.

Attorney Chuck Hatfield, representing the petition's backers, said the court doesn't need to overthink it: "If you put the consequences and the controversy aside, this analysis is really very simple."

The court must rule by September 8 on whether Proposition A appears on the ballot.

Missouri Republicans separately tried to push a measure to curtail the ability of voters to put initiatives on the ballot in the first place. This measure was resoundingly defeated last month.