US Supreme Court again blocks Republican-backed Missouri congressional map

Jack Harvel, Kacen Bayless and Ben Wheeler, The Kansas City Star on Sep 10, 2026

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The U.S. Supreme Court again rejected a push to use a more Republican-friendly map in the 2026 election.

That leaves the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision suspending the maps and requiring the state to use the maps passed in 2022.

Thursday's decision follows a flurry of court filings and rulings this week that have cast Missouri’s election map into chaos, with conflicting rulings from the state’s Supreme Court and a federal court. The move has left election workers in uncharted waters.

People Not Politicians, a campaign seeking to strike down the map, filed an emergency application with the United States Supreme Court on Wednesday, asking Justice Brett Kavanaugh to block a federal ruling from the Eastern District of Missouri.

That ruling, from Judge Stephen R. Clark, came after Kavanaugh previously declined to issue a stay in the case on Tuesday. Clark ruled that the state could only use the gerrymandered map, or HB1.

The campaign against HB1 filed an emergency application for an appeal to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals after Clark’s ruling, which was ultimately denied Wednesday after the panel of judges found it lacked jurisdiction over the matter or that the opponents of the map did not meet the threshold needed for a stay.

Attorneys for the campaign then filed their application for a stay with the country’s highest court, asking to pause the eastern district’s decision pending an appeal.

“The temporary restraining order (“TRO”) issued by the district court is in direct conflict with the order and injunction from the Missouri Supreme Court on the same question—which congressional map can and should go into effect for the November general elections,” the application from People Not Politicians said.

The U.S. Supreme Court is pausing the temporary restraining order pending an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. The stay, which temporarily pauses a lawsuit or stops a judgment from being carried out, will be terminated by the 8th Circuit.

The decision came down shortly before the Missouri Supreme Court was set to hear arguments over whether Secretary of State Denny Hoskins should be held in contempt. That charge comes after Hoskins ordered local election officials to use the new map in November.

“My understanding is that the secretary understands now that he is under an injunction from this court not to use the HB 1 maps and that he intends to proceed with what we call the ‘22 map,” Chuck Hatfield, an attorney for the referendum campaign, told the court on Thursday.

Richard Von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians, immediately celebrated the ruling.

“Clerks have ballots to print; they have to get moving on that,” Von Glahn said. “The only thing that is in effect is the SCOMO ruling that says ‘use the 2022 map.”