Missouri redistricting challengers return to SCOTUS in latest twist over GOP maps

After a flurry of conflicting court rulings, opponents to Missouri’s redistricting push asked the Supreme Court for clarity.WASHINGTON (CN) — The fate of Missouri’s Republican-friendly congressional maps returned to the Supreme Court on Wednesday as redistricting challengers urged the justices to nix the gerrymandered maps for good.Organizers who proposed a statewide referendum before the redrawn maps could be used sought emergency intervention to block a federal court order allowing the new maps to be used in the November election.U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark, a Donald Trump appointee, issued an injunction reinstating the maps Tuesday, just minutes after Justice Brett Kavanaugh, also a Trump appointee, ruled the opposite.The organizers submitted a subsequent emergency appeal to Kavanaugh, who presides over applications from the Eighth Circuit, on Wednesday, claiming federal courts were interfering in a state election process that had already been decided by the state’s highest court.“The district court’s legally baseless [temporary restraining order] must not be permitted to detonate in the middle of Missouri’s congressional elections to blow up the clear and careful ruling of the Missouri Supreme Court and the fundamental rights of Missouri voters,” the organizers led by Richard von Glahn wrote.Trump ignited a nationwide rush to redraw congressional maps outside of the normal decennial redistricting cycle last year. Missouri’s new maps were drawn to give Republicans seven of the state’s eight seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.Redistricting opponents submitted over 300,000 petition signatures to put the map to a vote of the people. Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected them, asserting that Missouri’s Constitution doesn’t allow referendum petitions on congressional redistricting. He successfully defended his decision in a lower court, but lost in front of the state’s highest court.The Missouri Supreme Court said that the referendum petition effectively suspended the new districts, retroactive to last December, pending voter approval. Although the new districts were used in the August primary, Missouri’s top court said the previous districts enacted after the 2020 census must be used in the general election.State officials filed an emergency appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court just days before the deadline to make changes to the November ballot. Kavanaugh denied emergency relief on Tuesday, allowing the Missouri Supreme Court ruling to stand.Now the referendum organizers pushed Kavanaugh to grant them relief ensuring the new maps aren’t used in the upcoming midterms as the Missouri high court ordered.“The [temporary restraining order] thus does not merely override a state-law rule that conflicts with federal law; it affirmatively requires the state to enforce a state law that, under its own state constitution, has no legal effect — forcing election officials to choose between being in contempt of one court’s order or the other and making the election vulnerable to challenge,” the organizers wrote. “The extraordinary uncertainty that results is deeply adverse to the public interest and weighs heavily in favor of a stay.”The court asked for a response from state officials by 10 a.m. on Thursday.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads