Backers of a Missouri redistricting referendum late on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene for a third time in three weeks in the fight over which congressional map must be used for the Nov. 3 elections.
The latest appeal comes as the first votes are being cast and state election officials face conflicting state and federal court orders. An 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling requiring use of the 2025 map is on hold until Sept. 28, leaving the 2022 map in place for now.
The motion filed about 10:30 p.m. asks the court to again direct the state to use the 2022 map for the November election. In response, Justice Brett Kavanaugh directed that responses from Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and the two congressional candidates who filed the case be filed by 1 p.m. Wednesday.
The 8th Circuit ruling “demands a new map after votes have already been cast,” wrote attorneys for People Not Politicians, the political action committee that sponsored the referendum. “Ballots using the 2022 map have been printed and mailed, and absentee voting, both by mail and in-person, began today. Those ballots cannot be reassigned to new districts now.”
The filing reminds the high court that on two previous occasions, it has upheld the Missouri Supreme Court’s order that the gerrymandered redistricting plan passed in 2025 “never went into effect” because of the referendum.
People Not Politicians wants the Supreme Court to block an order from the Eastern District of Missouri from taking effect on Sept. 28. That order, barring “the use of any congressional district map other than the 2025 map” for the election, was issued Monday by U.S. Chief District Judge Stephen Clark. The order was issued at the direction of the appeals court and stayed until Sept. 28 to allow time for the appeal filed Tuesday night.
People Not Politicians started organizing a campaign to force a referendum on the 2025 map before Republicans finished pushing it through the Legislature at the insistence of President Donald Trump. The map was drawn to make the 5th District, held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, significantly more favorable to Republicans.
Cleaver received more than 60% of the vote in the district drawn by lawmakers in 2022 and used in the 2022 and 2024 elections.
Late Monday afternoon, before the Supreme Court filing, People Not Politicians’ attorney, Alixandra Cossette asked the 8th Circuit to rescind its order. The first ballots, for overseas voters, were sent last week, she wrote, and the first in-person votes, for people who will be unable to reach the polls on Election Day, were being cast Tuesday.
“The on-the-ground reality is irrefutable,” Cossette wrote. “Missouri’s 116 local election authorities are running the election under the 2022 map.”
In response, Lou Capozzi, solicitor general for Missouri, asked the court to deny the motion, arguing People Not Politicians has questionable standing in the case and is unlikely to prevail at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The 8th Circuit denied the request shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday, setting up the appeal to the Supreme Court.
A successful referendum petition has two effects under the Missouri Constitution — it puts the legislation on a statewide ballot and suspends the legal effect of a bill signed by the governor until approved by voters.
Republican officials spent much of the year fighting both effects, including successfully arguing that the Aug. 4 primary should be held using the 2025 map because the petition had not been certified for the ballot. But the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Sept. 3 that the referendum was valid and that the 2025 map “never went into effect.”
Republicans have given up on stopping the referendum, which will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot as Proposition A. But they continue to pursue an order that would use the 2025 map for the November vote. Richard von Glahn, director of People Not Politicians, said in an interview Tuesday with The Independent that he felt sure that the referendum would achieve both its goals — defeating the 2025 map and preventing its use in the election.
“The courts have been very clear,” von Glahn said. “You cannot change maps in the middle of an election. So, how confident am I? Very confident.”
Before the Missouri Supreme Court’s Sept. 3 decision, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins was preparing to use the 2025 map for Nov. 3. That changed with the court’s ruling, which placed the referendum on the ballot and directed Hoskins to use the map drawn in 2022 and used for the 2022 and 2024 elections.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 8 denied Hoskins’ direct appeal of the Missouri Supreme Court decision in its first decision on the congressional map. Hours later, Clark issued a temporary restraining order blocking Hoskins from using any map but the 2025 map.
On Sept. 10, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed Clark’s order while the case was appealed to the 8th Circuit, again leaving the Missouri Supreme Court’s directive in place. That same day, the Missouri Supreme Court found Hoskins in contempt of its rulings.
The case before Clark and the 8th Circuit is not a direct appeal of the Missouri Supreme Court decision. Instead, it is a lawsuit filed by U.S. Rep. Bob Onder, who represents the 3rd District, state Sen. Rick Brattin, the GOP nominee in the 5th District, and two voters who would switch districts from the primary to the general election.
They sued Hoskins, who agreed that the federal courts should step in to order the use of the 2025 map. People Not Politicians intervened in the case and appealed Clark’s initial order.
Onder, Brattin and the voter plaintiffs argue that switching maps between the primary and general elections violates their rights to equal protection under the laws, among other federal constitutional and election law questions.
The 8th Circuit agreed, with a unanimous three-judge panel finding that the map can’t be changed after it was in place from the start of the official election process.
“During that time, Missourians filed to run for Congress, met candidates, watched campaign advertisements, received campaign mail, and voted under the 2025 map,” the court wrote. “Any confusion stems from the last-minute decision by a state court to switch the congressional map.”
In the filing asking for the 8th Circuit to rescind its order, Cossette wrote that Onder, Brattin and the other plaintiffs cannot argue they have rights that have been violated because the 2025 map was never legally in effect.
“Denying a stay permanently nullifies intervenors’ referendum right and forces Missouri voters to elect representatives from districts that have never been the law,” Cossette wrote. “Granting a stay preserves the only lawful map, protects the referendum, and allows the Supreme Court to resolve the novel constitutional questions.”
Attorneys for Onder and Brattin hope to persuade the federal courts that People Not Politicians has no standing to be involved in the litigation.
“Whatever interest intervenor-appellants possess in enforcing their understanding of Missouri’s referendum provisions is common to every Missouri citizen,” wrote attorney Marc Ellinger, who is representing Onder and Brattin.
If the U.S. Supreme Court accepts that People Not Politicians has no greater injury than any other citizen, it could decide the committee does not have standing to argue the case.
The petition was launched for two reasons, von Glahn said. It was to both put the map on the ballot and prevent its use until approved, he said.
“Our interest is that the laws and the Constitution of Missouri are followed, and they are proposing to violate that, so they’re frankly wrong and do not speak for us,” he said.
Campaign underway
People Not Politicians on Monday began major spending on the campaign for Proposition A. The Independent’s tracking of broadcast ad purchases shows the committee bought about $452,000 worth of commercial time Monday in the state’s three largest markets for ads that will begin in the first week of October.
The ad purchases cover the final four weeks before the election.
Von Glahn said the ads are not ready for release. The campaign will get its message to every corner of the state, he said.
“We intend to communicate with Missouri voters about the importance of the referendum and stopping politicians from rigging our elections,” von Glahn said.
People Not Politicians spent $4.5 million gathering signatures and had $537,000 on hand at the end of June. It has collected a little over $1 million in donations greater than $5,000 since that date.
People Not Politicians will be campaigning for people to vote “no” on the referendum.
Put Missouri First, the political action committee formed to persuade voters to back the map with a “yes” vote, has spent nearly $3 million opposing the referendum, most of it in an attempt to stop the petition drive. It had $90,000 on hand on June 30 and has received $18,000 in donations greater than $5,000 since that date. It has not purchased any ads.