By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-17 22:08:22 | Updated at 2026-09-17 23:12:01
1 hour ago
A federal appeals panel on Sept. 17 grappled with a complicated appeal involving which congressional map Missouri will use in the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Right now, the state is on track to use the map approved by the state Legislature in 2022, as opposed to the map it passed in 2025 that was used in the primary elections on Aug. 4.
The three-judge panel of the St. Louis-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit heard from attorneys via videoconference. Media participated by listening to an audio feed.
The judges and attorneys struggled to interpret a Sept. 10 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that stayed a federal district court’s temporary restraining order and had the effect of keeping the 2022 map in place, but provided no helpful guidance to lower courts because its order lacked reasoning.
Judge James Loken said that to him the ruling implied a sense of urgency.
“It’s on our plate and I think the Supreme Court has said ‘get to it,’” he said.
“So, here we are. They told us: Get to work,” he said. “Given the election year pressures and confusion and need for voters and everyone else to know, can we do that? … Can we come to a disposition in time, or will there be an election?”
Missouri Solicitor General Louis Capozzi said it “would have been helpful” if the U.S. Supreme Court had provided “a sentence or two” to explain its stay order, which is not considered to be binding precedent.
The state “operates from the position that we have to sort of take the U.S. Supreme Court’s hints and abide by them,” he said.
The 2022 map, drawn by the Missouri General Assembly after the 2020 census, was designed to give Republicans a 6–2 edge. The 2025 map, drawn as part of a mid-decade redistricting urged by President Donald Trump, was designed to give them a 7–1 advantage.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, signed HB 1, the bill authorizing the 2025 map, in September 2025 after the Republican-controlled Legislature approved it. Advocacy group People Not Politicians filed more than 300,000 signatures on a petition with Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in December 2025, days before the bill was scheduled to take effect.
Primary elections based on the 2025 map were held Aug. 4. On the same day, Hoskins rejected the group’s request to place HB 1 on the ballot for the Nov. 3 midterm congressional elections. He rejected arguments that when the petition signature count reached a certain point HB 1 was suspended pending a referendum vote.
Hoskins said that despite the state constitution’s provision that legislation subject to referendum be suspended until approved by voters, the U.S. Constitution’s Elections Clause gives the Legislature the power to prescribe congressional election rules. On that basis, he concluded that the referendum violated the U.S. Constitution and had no legal force.
On Sept. 3, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the petition was valid and timely and that HB 1 never became law. This meant the state would have to use the 2022 map on Nov. 3. The court also ordered that the referendum question be placed on the November ballot. A yes vote means the 2025 map will be used in 2028, while a no vote means the 2022 map will continue to be used.
Two courts ruled on the map on Sept. 8. First, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied Missouri’s emergency filing to stay the state high court ruling. Kavanaugh’s ruling had the effect of leaving the 2022 map in place. A short time later, U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark went in the other direction, issuing a temporary restraining order saying the state could not use any map other than the 2025 map authorized by HB 1.
On Sept. 9, People Not Politicians appealed Clark’s order to the Eighth Circuit, which denied the stay request. The group then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, and on Sept. 10 the court stayed Clark’s restraining order pending the appeal in the Eighth Circuit. The nation’s highest court did not explain its ruling.
Also on Sept. 10, Hoskins said the state would instruct election officials to use the 2022 map on Nov. 3 because the 2025 map was now blocked. The Missouri Supreme Court held Hoskins in contempt but did not punish him because it found his about-face on the maps purged his contempt.
On Sept. 17, an attorney for People Not Politicians argued at the Eighth Circuit that Clark lacked jurisdiction, or authority, to issue the restraining order, so it should be thrown out.
Marc Ellinger, an attorney for Rep. Bob Onder (R-Mo.), argued that People Not Politicians lacks standing to participate in the legal fight because the referendum has already been placed on the ballot.
The state backed Onder’s argument that switching maps between the primary and general elections likely violates the Elections Clause.
Allowing a tiny percentage of voters who signed the referendum petition to freeze a congressional map for two years is an undesirable outcome, Capozzi said.
“If this maneuver stands, and it will unless the federal courts intervene, we will have redistricting paralysis in Missouri, and every time the state tries to redistrict, at a minimum, 3.3 percent of voters can force the use of their preferred map for at least two years,” he said.
“That’s not democracy. That is profoundly anti-democratic.”
Chuck Hatfield, attorney for People Not Politicians, argued that the temporary restraining order should be dissolved.
He said Clark had no authority as a single judge to lock in a congressional map and that Onder’s lawsuit constituted a backdoor appeal of the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling, and that the so-called Purcell principle forbids a last-minute map change.
Hatfield said the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sept. 10 stay of the restraining order made this appeal moot, or legally irrelevant, and that without his client stepping in nobody would be defending the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling.
The attorney suggested sending the case back to Clark for further briefing, but Loken said no.
“You’re not going to get a remand so you can write more briefs until the election passes,” the judge said.
He also cut off Hatfield when he ran out of time, saying, “You’re out of time, dang it.”
Loken said the panel has to rule quickly because the U.S. Supreme Court would likely get the case again, and because election officials need certainty about the map.
The 2022 map remains in force for now unless the Eighth Circuit or another court orders otherwise.
