Eighth Circuit Says Missouri Must Use GOP 7–1 Map in November; Order Paused One Week for Supreme Court

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Missouri must use the Republican-drawn 2025 congressional map in the Nov. 3 general election — the same lines used in the August primary. The court said switching back to the 2022 map would violate the Constitution. The ruling does not take effect immediately. The panel stayed its order until Sept. 28 at 5 p.m. Central Time so opponents can seek relief from the U.S. Supreme Court. An earlier Supreme Court stay of a similar federal order remains in force, so election officials are still operating under the 2022 map unless the justices act.

“The Constitution does not permit Missouri to use a different congressional district map in the November 2026 general election than it used in the August 2026 primary election,” the panel wrote. “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 judges affirmed U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark of St. Louis and directed him to enter a permanent injunction barring Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and other officials from using any map other than the 2025 plan. They then delayed that injunction for seven days.

The 2025 map, adopted by the Republican Legislature last year after President Donald Trump pressed states to redraw mid-decade, would give Republicans a 7–1 House delegation. It divides Kansas City and is designed to unseat Democrat Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s 5th District. The 2022 map left a 6–2 split and kept Cleaver’s Kansas City-based seat intact.

The panel said Missourians had already lived under the new lines. “For approximately one year, Missouri operated under the 2025 map,” the majority wrote. “During that time, Missourians filed to run for Congress, met candidates, watched campaign advertisements, received campaign mail and voted under the 2025 map.” “Any confusion stems from the last-minute decision by a state court to switch the congressional map,” it added.

The court cited estimates that more than 1.4 million Missourians live in different districts under the two maps and that about 284,000 voters cast primary ballots in districts they would not vote in under the 2022 lines. In the 5th District, 57 percent of residents under the 2025 map would be moved if the older lines returned.

On Sept. 3, the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously held that the 2025 map could not take effect unless voters approved it in a November referendum and ordered officials back to the 2022 map. A group called People Not Politicians had gathered more than 300,000 signatures for that referendum. The U.S. Supreme Court this month twice left the state court’s result in place and paused a federal order that would have forced the 2025 map. Clark had issued that earlier order after GOP Rep. Bob Onder and primary winner Rick Brattin argued that changing maps between the primary and the general would disenfranchise voters.

People Not Politicians Executive Director Richard von Glahn said the group will file an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court. He said officials should “stop wasting taxpayers’ money on pointless legal action and instead focus on administering our elections.” If the justices do not intervene before the 8th Circuit stay expires Sept. 28, the permanent injunction would take effect and the 2025 map would control November.