The Supreme Court kept Missouri’s 2022 congressional map in place for the 2026 election, rejecting a lower-court order to use the 2025 Republican-drawn map. That map would have produced a 7–1 Republican split; voting has already begun under the 2022 lines.
The dispute escalated after the Eighth Circuit on Sept. 21 directed a district court to enter a permanent injunction requiring the 2025 map, 11 days after the Supreme Court’s Sept. 10 stay said the 2022 map would govern unless the justices issued another order.
Secretary of State Denny Hoskins tried to block the 2025 map from a referendum process that can freeze new laws pending a statewide vote if enough signatures are gathered. The Missouri Supreme Court had indicated the map could not lawfully be used if petitioners met the signature threshold, but Hoskins delayed rejecting the petition until the last possible day, leaving August’s primaries under the 2025 map. His Republican allies argued that using different maps for the primary and general election was unconstitutional. Voters will decide in November whether the 2025 map should be used in future elections.
