Missouri voters can weigh in on new congressional districts after a unanimous state Supreme Court ruling. Read the full decision.
JEFFERSON CITY聽鈥 Republicans struck out before the Missouri Supreme Court Thursday, losing their bid to block voters from weighing in on new congressional district boundaries designed to help President Donald Trump secure a GOP majority in the midterm elections in November.
In a just a day after the seven-judge panel heard oral arguments, the high court voted to allow a question to be placed on the November ballot asking if voters want the new maps designed by Republicans who control state government to help their party win a Kansas City-based district that has been in the hands of Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver for more than two decades.
It was a unanimous rebuke of the GOP position. Judge Ginger Gooch wrote the decision, saying the request for a referendum by the group People Not Politicians was legal, sufficient and timely.
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Gooch rebuffed Republicans who said map-drawing could not be challenged by voters, saying no such exception to citizen challenges of laws applies.
The court鈥檚 decision capped a lengthy legal battle that was brushing up against a Sept. 8 deadline for the courts to order election officials to put the question on the ballot.
鈥淭his court holds that the referendum and initiative petition power in (the Missouri Constitution) like the governor鈥檚 veto power鈥 is an essential part of the state鈥檚 lawmaking process under the Missouri Constitution,鈥 Gooch wrote.
Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway vowed to take the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Never before in American history has a court overturned a congressional map after a primary and before a general election. This unprecedented decision clearly violates federal law and has thrust our state into a full鈥慺ledged constitutional crisis," Hanaway said in a statement Thursday.
The decision, pending the outcome of further legal challenges, means the new maps will not be in effect for the Nov. 3 election, allowing Cleaver to run in his current district, rather than one stretching into mid-Missouri that would favor Republican state Sen. Rick Brattin of Harrisonville, who won a primary in August using the newly configured maps.
"This is what democracy looks like, the people of Missouri demanded a voice, and the court just confirmed what we鈥檝e been saying all along. People, not politicians, will have the final say,鈥 Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri said.聽
The ruling puts Missouri voters on course to affirm or reject state congressional maps for the first time since 1922, when voters overturned Republican-drawn maps. Asked about that precedent last month, Hoskins said that vote was never challenged in the courts.
Thursday's ruling ends a string of lower court victories for Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican who used his office to try to block the vote from going forward by employing statutory hurdles that had not previously been erected. Hoskins had crowed on social media in August that his batting average in the courts was akin to baseball legend Babe Ruth.
In a footnote in her ruling, Gooch scolded Hoskins for his delay tactics.
鈥淭he secretary delayed certification until the last possible date and chose not to seek resolution of the constitutional question despite having been told at least as early as December 2025 he had the unique ability as secretary to do so under Missouri statutes. Given these undisputed facts, the secretary鈥檚 arguments about confusion, expense, and practical difficulties are wholly unpersuasive,鈥 she wrote.
Hoskins did not have an immediate comment on the ruling.
The decision also is a loss for Gov. Mike Kehoe and his hand-picked attorney general, Hanaway, who sided with Hoskins鈥 in his attempt to block the vote. Hanaway provided key legal advice that the court disagreed with.
Republicans, who engineered the new map to give Missouri one additional safe GOP seat during the November mid-term elections, contended the redistricting process could not be challenged at the ballot box.
Plus, attorneys said, asking voters to vote 鈥測es鈥 or 鈥渘o鈥 on the maps is too complicated because there will be no pictures of the new district boundaries on the ballot question.
People Not Politicians, which collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, argued that 鈥渁ny act鈥 of the General Assembly is subject to the same kind of citizen votes that challenged previous laws, including previous maps.
People Not Politicians attorney Chuck Hatfield told the court that if Hoskins were to use the new map in the November election, it would be illegal because the organization collected enough signatures to get it on the ballot, which freezes the new law until voters go to the polls.
The tight deadline for the court to act appeared to frustrate Chief Justice Brent Powell, who suggested during Wednesday鈥檚 hearing that Hoskins slow-walked the referendum process in order to force the GOP-friendly map to be used in the August primary election.
Missouri is among 10 states that jumped into a partisan gerrymandering contest last year initially designed to help Trump secure a Republican majority in the narrowly divided U.S. House in a mid-term election that typically sees the president鈥檚 party lose seats in Congress. Democratic states also joined in to counter any possible GOP advantages.
Kehoe, a Trump ally, called the GOP-controlled Legislature into a special session on redistricting last year to approve a map that aims to help Republicans defeat Democratic 聽Cleaver. It reassigns portions of Kansas City to two neighboring districts represented by Republicans and stretches the remainder of Cleaver's 5th Congressional District far eastward into Republican-heavy rural areas.
That triggered a multi-million dollar effort by People Not Politicians to collect more than 300,000 signatures to put the redistricting change on the ballot.
Hoskins, who attended Wednesday鈥檚 arguments, declared the ballot question unconstitutional on Aug. 4, the same day the primary election was held using the new gerrymandered map.
The court鈥檚 14-page ruling, which sets aside the primary maps and positions the existing congressional districts to be used in November, is not expected to cause major problems for election officials.
Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon, a Democrat, and Polk County Clerk Rachel Lightfoot, a Republican, filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court last week saying county clerks could revert voter rolls back to the map they used before the gerrymandered one, which had been in effect since 2022, before the November election.
The clerks said the voter rolls from 2022 are still saved in the state's centralized voting system, even after the update to the new map for the August primary.
鈥淭his victory reaches beyond Missouri. In a year when map-drawing has become a national weapon, courts across the country are watching what happens here. A Missouri win for the referendum is a signal that the people still hold the power," von Glahn said in a statement.
