Missouri’s Trump-backed voting maps approved by federal panel challenged in supreme court

A high-stakes legal battle over Missouri’s congressional map returned on Wednesday to the US supreme court, after a series of conflicting decisions threw the state’s elections into turmoil less than two months before the November midterm elections.

On Wednesday, a federal appeals court panel declined to block a ruling ordering Missouri to use the newly drawn congressional lines backed by Donald Trump to give Republicans an edge in the midterms elections. Opponents of the state’s redistricted map immediately filed an appeal to the US supreme court.

The appeal is the latest move in an extraordinary legal back-and-forth spanning four courts. The rulings have left voters and local election officials in the state confused and uncertain about what the November ballot will look like. And there’s little time left before the pivotal elections that will decide which party controls a closely divided congress – and will impact the fate of Trump’s agenda for the rest of his term.

On Tuesday, conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh had denied a request from Missouri officials to use the House map favored by Republicans. His refusal left in place a unanimous ruling from the Missouri supreme court, which blocked the newer maps, drawn to carve an additional Republican-friendly House seat.

But not long after, a federal district judge in St Louis issued a contradictory decision, temporarily preventing the state from using its old congressional maps in the November elections. The temporary restraining order, or TRO, ordered Missouri to use the newly drawn districts that favor Republicans, which the state used in its August primary elections.

That ruling, issued by Stephen Clark of the eastern district of Missouri, was then appealed to the eighth US circuit court of appeals.

“Using a different map for the general election would wreak havoc on the fairness and orderliness of Missouri’s congressional elections, calling into question the candidacy of those nominated in the primaries and the votes of those who voted in the primaries. Widespread voter confusion would inevitably follow,” Clark, who was appointed by the president, wrote. “The public interest factor thus weighs in favor of a TRO.”

People Not Politicians, the group leading the challenge to the Republican-drawn map in Missouri, said in a statement on Wednesday that the eighth circuit court’s decision to deny their stay request had left state election officials with “no legal map to use”.

Trump urged Republican-led states last year to redraw congressional districts to their advantage ahead of November’s midterms, sparking a national redistricting battle. Texas went first, followed by Missouri in responding to the president’s push.

The revised map, passed by state lawmakers last September, targeted the fifth congressional district held by Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, a longtime Democratic representative. It reassigned parts of Kansas City to two neighboring districts represented by Republicans and stretched the remainder of Cleaver’s district far eastward into rural Republican areas.