Justice Kavanaugh Denies Missouri Request to Use New Congressional Map
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The Facts
- Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied Missouri’s emergency request to use its newer congressional map in November.
- Kavanaugh acted without referring Missouri’s request to the full Supreme Court.
- Kavanaugh’s action left the Missouri Supreme Court’s block on the newer map in place.
- Missouri will use its 2022 congressional districts for the November general election.
- Missouri’s Supreme Court found the newer map was suspended by a citizen petition seeking a statewide vote.
- Missouri voters are expected to decide the newer map’s future through a statewide referendum.
- The newer map was designed to improve Republicans’ chances of gaining an additional U.S. House seat.
Context
Why did the newer congressional map not take effect for November?
Missouri’s Supreme Court ruled that a citizen petition requiring a statewide vote automatically suspended the new districts, and Kavanaugh declined to suspend that ruling. CBS News HuffPost AP NEWS
Which map will Missouri use in the general election?
Missouri will conduct the November general election under the congressional map used in 2022 and 2024. Maryville Forum Fox News POLITICO
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
Left and right largely agree on this one.
- Where Left and Right agree
- Missouri's 2022 congressional map governs November because Kavanaugh let the state court's suspension of the newer, GOP-favoring map stand, pending a citizen referendum.
- Where Left and Right differ in emphasis
- Both accept the referendum-first outcome; one frames it as citizen-petition procedure the state must respect, the other as federal courts deferring to a state's own law.
- Why they won’t converge
- The split is over institutional trust: whether a state supreme court's reading of its own petition law should bind federal courts, or whether a legislature's enacted map deserves deference regardless of a pending referendum.
- Watch for
- Watch how Missouri reconciles primaries already run under the newer map with a November ballot reverting to the 2022 districts, a mismatch officials warned must be resolved in under 60 days.The Hill
How left and right read it
When citizens have already gathered signatures to put a map to a statewide vote, the people asking to override that suspension carry the burden — and Missouri officials did not meet it. That is why Kavanaugh's refusal matters: the state's own high court found the newer map suspended by petition, so the 2022 districts govern November. The map exists to take a seat. Voters decide, or it stays blocked.
“The 2025 Republican redistricting plan, part of a wave prompted by President Donald Trump, was designed to eliminate one of the state's two Democratic-held seats, currently held by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.” — NBC News
A House majority built by overriding a pending citizen vote is worth less than one earned inside the rules. Kavanaugh didn't even refer this to the full Court, because a state supreme court reading its own state's petition law is not Washington's business — so the 2022 districts govern November. The extra seat that map was drawn to deliver is still winnable. Why not win it at the ballot box?
“Republicans have largely come out the victors in court rulings pertaining to the midterms, with changes to the Voting Rights Act and a failed effort to strip Republican seats in Virginia solidifying the GOP's chances of retaining the House.” — Townhall
The receipts — all 100 sources
Wire services (15)
Independent coverage (50)
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