8th Circuit orders Missouri to use GOP-drawn 2025 map, but Supreme Court review looms

Missouri's congressional map fight lurched into a new phase Monday when a federal appeals court ruled the state must use its 2025 Republican-drawn districts in November — directly contradicting the Missouri Supreme Court, which had ordered the opposite — and then immediately froze its own ruling for a week to let the U.S. Supreme Court weigh in.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld a lower federal court's decision, instructing it to issue a permanent injunction that would prohibit Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and other election officials from using any congressional map other than the 2025 version. The court stayed that injunction until September 28 at 5 p.m. Central Time. People Not Politicians, the group that organized a referendum petition against the new map, announced Monday that it intends to bring an emergency appeal before the Supreme Court.

For now, Missouri election officials remain bound by the 2022 map — the one the U.S. Supreme Court twice allowed to stand. If the Supreme Court does not intervene before the stay expires, officials would be required to begin using the 2025 map for the November election.

The constitutional argument at the heart of Monday's ruling is that a primary and a general election are a single, unified process for choosing members of Congress. Given that Missouri conducted its August 4 primary under the 2025 district lines, the majority held that requiring voters to use different boundaries for the general election would run afoul of Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution, which the court said requires 'continuity in the constituency throughout all stages of a single election.'

A congressional primary selects the candidates who will compete to represent a particular district, and the general election determines which of those candidates will represent that same district.— 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, majority opinion

Estimates cited by the panel indicate that more than 1.4 million Missourians fall in different districts depending on which map is used, and that roughly 284,000 voters participated in primaries under districts that differ from those they would be assigned under the 2022 map. In the 5th Congressional District alone — the Kansas City-area seat held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver — 57 percent of residents placed in that district by the 2025 map would be shifted elsewhere under the older lines.

The ruling puts the Eighth Circuit in direct conflict with the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously on September 3 that the 2025 map could not be used because opponents had submitted more than 300,000 petition signatures in December calling for a statewide referendum on the new districts. A state court determination that Hoskins acted unlawfully when he rejected that petition on August 4 — the same day as the primary — also concluded that the new map 'is not the law and has never been the law.' On Monday, the Eighth Circuit held that federal constitutional requirements take precedence over the state court's decision.

Comprising the panel are Judge James Loken, nominated by former President George H.W. Bush, alongside two Trump appointees — Judges David Stras and Justin Smith. Smith was appointed in June; before that, he had represented Trump in an unsuccessful Supreme Court appeal of a $5 million jury verdict in a lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, according to KSBW.

The U.S. Supreme Court has already intervened twice in this dispute. Earlier this month, it declined to disturb the Missouri Supreme Court's ruling and then separately paused a federal district court order — issued by Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark — that had sought to revive the 2025 map. Both times, the high court acted without public dissent. Monday's Eighth Circuit ruling is an attempt by the federal courts to revisit that question on a fuller record.

The practical stakes are severe. Using the 2022 districts, local election officials have already sent absentee ballots to military personnel and citizens living abroad, and state law requires absentee ballots to be available to all other voters by Tuesday. In a legal filing submitted to the appeals judges, the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities described a last-minute district change as 'practically impossible' and said it would run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Miller County Clerk Clinton Jenkins, who said he mailed a ballot to a voter in Australia last Friday, suggested other voters 'wait a little deeper into the absentee period, just in case' the district boundaries change again.

Ballots have been printed, and Missourians have already voted. Thousands more will vote before this order seeks to take effect.— Richard von Glahn, Executive Director, People Not Politicians Missouri

Officials should stop wasting taxpayers' money on pointless legal action and instead focus on administering our elections.— Richard von Glahn, Executive Director, People Not Politicians Missouri

Republicans who sued to restore the 2025 map — including U.S. Rep. Robert Onder and state Sen. Rick Brattin, a congressional candidate — argued during last Thursday's oral arguments that there is still time to revert to the new map. Brattin welcomed Monday's decision, with KSBW reporting that he said switching districts after the primary 'defies common sense and undermines the entire electoral process.'

The 2025 map, enacted by the Republican-controlled legislature in a special session and backed by President Trump, was designed to give Republicans a potential 7-1 advantage in Missouri's eight-seat U.S. House delegation — one more than they currently hold. At the center of the new map's changes is the 5th Congressional District, where Cleaver ran unopposed on the Democratic side and Brattin emerged from a crowded Republican primary field. According to KSBW, roughly 59 percent of the voters eligible to participate in the redrawn 5th District were not previously part of it.

The case is now almost certain to return to the Supreme Court before the September 28 deadline. The high court's previous orders in this dispute came without public dissent, suggesting the justices may again move quickly — though in which direction remains the central uncertainty hanging over Missouri's November ballot.

Why it matters — The ruling sets up a third U.S. Supreme Court intervention in a dispute that is actively reshaping which ballots Missouri voters receive — with absentee voting already underway and a November 3 election deadline closing in.

Sources differ on Whether it is still feasible to switch to the 2025 map before the November election: Switching maps is 'practically impossible' and would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars at this stage. (ksbw.com (citing Missouri Association of County Clerks filing)) vs There is still time to revert to the 2025 map; courts have ordered changes after absentee ballots were already distributed to overseas and military voters in other cases. (ksbw.com (citing argument by attorney for Republican plaintiffs, and 8th Circuit majority))

Reported by bgov.com, news.bgov.com, kansascity.com, politico.com, ksbw.com, missouriindependent.com, scotusblog.com, cnn.com