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U.S. Supreme Court, for a Third Time, Declines to Overturn Lawful Missouri Congressional Map

WASHINGTON — Today, the U.S. Supreme Court has, for a third time, declined to allow an unlawful congressional map to be used in the 2026 midterm elections in Missouri.
Less than two months before Election Day, two congressional candidates and two voters attempted to force the state once again to use the 2025 map that was a result of mid-decade redistricting, even though it had already been ruled unlawful by the Missouri Supreme Court, a ruling twice left in place by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Campaign Legal Center, the ACLU of Missouri and ACLU Voting Rights Project filed amicus briefs at the Missouri Supreme Court, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and three times at the U.S. Supreme Court, most recently on September 22, 2026, urging the Court to stay a rogue decision of the Eighth Circuit and a federal district court attempting to resurrect the 2025 map. Today the Supreme Court stayed those lower court decisions, definitively confirming that the 2026 election must take place under the lawful 2022 map.
“The gerrymandered map passed in 2025 in Missouri was never law, and yet self-interested, partisan politicians, and now two lower federal courts, have repeatedly attempted to impose it on voters for the 2026 midterms,” said Mark Gaber, senior director of redistricting at Campaign Legal Center. “This case should never have reached the Supreme Court three times, but we’re glad that the final outcome of these cases is Missourians having the opportunity to vote under a lawful map this fall.”
“Politicians and elected officials have unleashed unnecessary but intentional chaos on Missouri voters, not for the benefit of their constituents but for themselves and the state actors in D.C. who designed and demanded these maps solely for partisan power grab,” said Gillian Wilcox, director of litigation and policy for the ACLU of Missouri. “Voting has already begun and today’s decision closes the door on the politicians’ shenanigans.”
“The people of Missouri have the right to go to the polls and reject the State’s attempt to gerrymander their congressional districts, and the Supreme Court has now confirmed, for the third time in as many weeks, that the State’s unlawful districts cannot be used this November,” said Ming Cheung, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “Voting has already begun, and all efforts to cause confusion and chaos must cease. This saga began in 2025 when politicians tried to rig the map and take away representation from Kansas City residents, but the courts have now made clear that voters — not politicians — decide who represents them.”
Background:
In September 2025, the Missouri General Assembly passed House Bill 1 (H.B. 1) which created a new, mid-decade, gerrymandered congressional map. In response, the people of Missouri exercised their rights under the Missouri Constitution by collecting signatures for a referendum petition on H.B. 1.
On December 9, 2025, Missourians submitted over 300,000 signatures in support of the referendum. Under the Missouri Constitution, this should have suspended the implementation of the new map until voters had an opportunity to either approve or disapprove of it in the next election. However, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins refused to certify the referendum petition and attempted to force voters to vote under the unlawful map.
Secretary Hoskins’ actions were met with swift legal action, and after moving through multiple lawsuits, the U.S. Supreme Court denied multiple efforts by him and other political actors to retain the unlawful 2025 map in the upcoming midterms.
This latest decision from the Supreme Court comes after an appeal of an Eighth Circuit ruling that the unlawful map must be used.