Justice Brett Kavanaugh has agreed to hear emergency arguments in Missouri's congressional map dispute for the third time in a month, even as ballots have already been printed and early voting has begun.
Kavanaugh accepted an emergency intervention request Tuesday night from People Not Politicians, a Democratic-aligned group challenging the state's 2025 Republican-drawn congressional map. He directed supporters of the new map, including Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and two congressional candidates, to file their responses by Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET. The order came hours after the group filed its appeal following a Monday ruling by the St. Louis-based Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that sided with the 2025 map.
The legal mess now involves four courts, at least three conflicting orders, and a state where some residents have already mailed in their ballots. Missouri's county clerks say they cannot switch maps at this point. And the Supreme Court, which has already intervened twice, now faces the question a third time with the election bearing down.
The dispute traces back to a 2025 redistricting map drawn by Missouri's Republican-controlled legislature. The new lines would expand the Kansas City-area 5th Congressional District into more Republican-leaning rural territory, a move projected to hand the GOP one additional seat in the U.S. House heading into the 2026 midterms.
People Not Politicians gathered 300,000 signatures on a petition arguing that, under Missouri's constitution, voters should have the right to approve or reject the new map through a referendum. But Hoskins, the secretary of state, rejected the petition and instead used the 2025 map to draw district lines for the state's primary elections. Republican candidates won their primaries under those lines.
The group then turned to the courts. The Missouri Supreme Court sided with the challengers, ruling that the 2025 map could not go into effect "unless and until approved by the voters at the November 2026 general election." That ruling blocked the new map and ordered a statewide vote on whether to keep it.
Hoskins appealed the state court ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Sept. 4, Kavanaugh, who handles emergency requests from Missouri's circuit, declined to hear it.
That should have settled things. It did not.
Republican candidates who had won their primaries under the 2025 map brought a separate case in federal court, arguing that forcing them to run under the old 2022 map in the general election would present voters with candidates they had no role in selecting during the primaries. Eighth Circuit Judge Stephen R. Clark, a Trump appointee, agreed. He issued a 14-day temporary restraining order requiring Missouri to use the 2025 map, directly contradicting the Missouri Supreme Court.
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe and Attorney General Catherine Hanaway both said the state would comply with Clark's federal order. Kehoe stated that "with today marking the deadline for changes to the November ballot, the Missouri First Map will be used in the general election." Hanaway called switching maps between a primary and a general election "simply not feasible and profoundly unjust to Missouri voters."
People Not Politicians went back to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh agreed to intervene, and the court issued an unsigned order blocking Clark's ruling until the Eighth Circuit could issue a formal decision.
The Eighth Circuit fast-tracked the case, and on Monday, ruled in favor of the 2025 map, reversing the stay and siding with the Republican-drawn lines.
That triggered Tuesday night's emergency appeal, and Kavanaugh's decision to take up the case yet again.
The practical reality on the ground makes any map switch extraordinarily difficult. The Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities announced it will not use the 2025 map for November, arguing in a court filing that the state simply does not have enough time to provide new ballots. Ballots using the 2022 map have already been printed and mailed, and absentee voting, both by mail and in person, has already started, attorneys for People Not Politicians told the court.
Richard von Glahn, the group's director, did not hold back.
"Ballots have been printed, and Missourians have already voted. Thousands more will vote before this order seeks to take effect. Officials should stop wasting taxpayers' money on pointless legal action and instead focus on administering our elections."
The Washington Examiner reported that when Kavanaugh denied Hoskins' earlier emergency application on Sept. 4, the effect was to leave the Missouri Supreme Court's ruling in place, meaning the older map from the 2022 and 2024 elections remained the operative one. The Eighth Circuit's Monday ruling upended that arrangement, and now the Supreme Court must decide whether to restore it.
The secretary of state's role in the dispute has drawn its own scrutiny. Breitbart reported that the Missouri Supreme Court summoned Hoskins to explain why he should not be held in contempt for directing election officials to follow the federal judge's ruling over the state court's order. That proceeding adds another layer to a conflict already defined by dueling jurisdictions.
Von Glahn framed the issue bluntly: "The law is the law, the Missouri Constitution is clear as was the Missouri Supreme Court."
Missouri's redistricting mess now stands as one of the most tangled election-law disputes in recent memory. A state supreme court, a federal district court, a federal appeals court, and the U.S. Supreme Court have all weighed in, some of them more than once, and the result is a state where voters, clerks, and candidates still do not know which map governs their November elections.
The stakes are concrete. If the 2025 map survives, Republicans gain an additional House seat heading into the 2026 midterms. If the Missouri Supreme Court's order holds, the 2022 map remains in place and voters would decide the new map's fate in November 2026.
Three trips to the Supreme Court in a single month. Ballots already in the mail. A secretary of state facing contempt. And still no final answer. Missouri's redistricting fight is a case study in what happens when courts collide and voters get caught in the middle.
