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PoliticsNews Brief

Appeals court backs Trump-backed Missouri map, but Supreme Court has final say

The 8th Circuit said Missouri should use the Republican-drawn districts that dismantled Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City seat, but paused its own ruling to September 28 so the Supreme Court can weigh in.

By Tom Ellery · News Brief · · Updated · 2 min read

The interior of the Missouri State Capitol dome in Jefferson City.
Kbh3rd, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons · source

A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that Missouri should use new Republican-drawn congressional districts in the November election, handing a win to Donald Trump-backed redistricting — but the ruling has no immediate effect, with the US Supreme Court set to have the final say.

A three-judge panel of the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals, based in St Louis, said Missouri should use the new districts in November just as the state did in its August primary, finding that reverting to prior districts would violate the US Constitution. The panel directed a lower-court judge to enter a permanent injunction allowing only the Trump-backed map, but paused its own ruling until 5pm CT on Monday, September 28 to give the Supreme Court time to weigh in, Reuters reports. Opponents said on Monday they would file an emergency appeal.

Missouri Republicans adopted the map in 2025, dismantling the Kansas City-based seat of longtime Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver as part of a Trump-backed national push to redraw districts ahead of the midterms. On September 3, the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously blocked the map, siding with challengers who said voters must approve it in a November referendum. A federal judge then ordered the new map used, but the Supreme Court paused that order — it has twice sided against the Trump-backed map — and Missouri officials said they would run the election on the prior districts.

The state is currently set to use the same districts as in 2024 and 2022. Absentee ballots for overseas and military voters have already been sent using those districts, and under state law a voter who has cast a ballot cannot be issued another one — even if the boundaries change, the AP reports.

Sources

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