Supreme Court hands Trump-backed GOP map stinging blow with a pointed message

The Supreme Court on Friday dealt Missouri Republicans another defeat, blocking lower federal courts from forcing the state to use the Trump-backed 2025 congressional map in the midterms.

The unsigned order is a win for People Not Politicians, the group that forced a referendum on the map. It puts on hold rulings from the Eighth Circuit and a federal judge, including an appeals court decision one legal expert had called "borderline lawless," and warns that federal courts should not change a state's election rules once voting has already begun.

"Given this Court's two prior orders in this litigation, our conclusion that this was error should come as no surprise," the justices wrote of the Eighth Circuit's ruling.

It was the Court's third ruling against the map this month.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected Missouri's bid to revive it on Sept. 8, and the full Court blocked a federal judge's order requiring it two days later. Earlier this week, an Eighth Circuit panel directed the lower court to order the map's use anyway, sending the fight back to Washington.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Sept. 3 that the 2025 map, which Republican lawmakers passed at President Donald Trump's urging in an effort to flip Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City seat, cannot take effect unless voters approve it in a referendum. Opponents gathered more than 300,000 signatures to put it on the November ballot.

The justices noted that ballots under the 2022 map have already been printed and mailed, and that absentee and military voting are underway. They also pushed back on the Eighth Circuit's claim that the state court caused the confusion, noting the Missouri Supreme Court had signaled in May that the map could be suspended. Missouri's secretary of state, they wrote, chose to run the August primary under the 2025 map despite being well aware of the risks.

That official, Denny Hoskins, was found in contempt by the state's high court earlier this month for directing local officials to use the 2025 map. The court cleared him after he reversed course.

The order came the same day the Court handed Trump a win on a controversial federal voter database.