Appeals court backs GOP-drawn map in Missouri

Michael Macagnone, CQ-Roll Call on Sep 21, 2026

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WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Monday reinstated a Republican-preferred congressional map for Missouri, setting up a likely third Supreme Court fight over the district lines for the “Show-me State.”

The ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit found that, because the state used a map drawn by legislators in 2025 for the August primary, the state must use it for the November election.

It’s the latest legal whiplash for the state, which has gone back and forth between the 2025 plan and one originally drawn in 2022 multiple times in the last month.

“This Court holds that Missouri’s current plan to use the 2022 map in the November 2026 general election violates the Constitution. Only use of the 2025 map complies with the Constitution and federal law,” the decision said.

The judges argued that although states have already sent absentee ballots for the fall election using the 2022 lines, the state should still be able to use the 2025 map for this fall.

In a statement Monday, the executive director of the group behind the legal challenge to the map, Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, said the group would file an emergency application to the Supreme Court.

“Ballots have been printed, and Missourians have already voted. Thousands more will vote before this order seeks to take effect. Officials should stop wasting taxpayers’ money on pointless legal action and instead focus on administering our elections,” the statement said.

Missouri adopted the Republican-favored plan in 2025 amid a nationwide arms race in partisan redistricting. The 2025 plan targets one of the state’s two Democrats, the Kansas City-based seat held by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II.

Shortly after the legislature adopted the map, People Not Politicians Missouri launched a statewide ballot campaign on whether the state should have a new map at all. While that ballot effort was pending, the state held its primaries under the 2025 plan.

Then the state Supreme Court ruled that, because the ballot initiative was still pending, the state could not use the 2025 plan in November. State officials then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in, but were rebuffed.

For a while, the 2022 map remained in effect.

Separately, Republican Rep. Bob Onder, along with another Republican congressional candidate and two voters, had filed suit in federal court. On the same day as the first Supreme Court ruling, Judge Stephen R. Clark for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri ruled that the state must use the 2025 GOP-drawn map.

People Not Politicians filed their own emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, which was granted on Sept. 10, putting the 2022 plan back in place.

Once the Supreme Court sent the case back down to the 8th Circuit, the three-judge panel held oral arguments last week and issued Monday’s decision.

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