After weeks of legal whiplash over Missouri’s congressional districts, the U.S. Supreme Court settled the question Friday for the Nov. 3 election: Voters will use the state’s 2022 map.
“As a matter of state law, the 2022 map — not the 2025 map — must be used in the 2026 congressional election,” the court said in an unsigned opinion.
There were no noted dissents.
The decision marks the third time in less than a month that the nation’s highest court has blocked an effort to use the Republican-drawn congressional boundaries approved last year. This time, the justices went further, saying federal courts should neither prohibit use of the 2022 map nor require Missouri to use the 2025 boundaries in this year’s election.
The ruling came four days after the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Missouri to use the 2025 map, reversing what had appeared to be a settled question. The appeals court ruled that using one set of districts for the August primary and another for the general election would violate the U.S. Constitution.
The appeals court delayed its order for a week, giving opponents time to return to the Supreme Court.
By then, however, Missouri’s election was already underway. Ballots had been sent to military and overseas voters, and absentee voting had begun.
“The election is not merely upcoming; it has already started,” the Supreme Court said, adding that changing maps again at this stage “would usher in electoral chaos.”
The dispute began after Missouri’s Republican-controlled Legislature approved new congressional boundaries during a 2025 special session. President Donald Trump had pressured Missouri and other Republican-led states to redraw congressional districts in an effort to help the GOP maintain its majority in the U.S. House in the 2026 midterm elections.
The biggest changes were made to the Kansas City-based 5th District represented by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, one of Missouri’s two Black members of Congress. Republicans hold six of Missouri’s eight U.S. House seats. The 2025 map was designed to improve Republicans’ chances of winning a seventh.
The St. Louis-area 1st District represented by Democratic Rep. Wesley Bell, Missouri’s other Black member of Congress, was largely unchanged.
Opponents of the new map collected more than 300,000 signatures seeking a statewide referendum. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected the petition Aug. 4, but the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled Sept. 3 that it was valid and had prevented the 2025 map from taking effect.
A series of conflicting state and federal court orders followed, repeatedly putting the map for November in doubt.
Friday’s ruling settles which districts Missouri will use in the Nov. 3 election.
Voters still will decide the future of the 2025 boundaries when they vote on Proposition A on Nov. 3. A yes vote would approve the 2025 map for future elections. A no vote would leave the 2022 boundaries in place.