Missouri Supreme Court Blocks GOP Congressional Map

Missouri's highest court ruled unanimously that a congressional map drawn by Republicans cannot be used in the November elections. According to The Hill, the plan at issue was crafted to give Republicans one more seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the court's decision takes that map off the table for this fall's voting.

President Trump reacted by describing the decision as "ridiculous," Fox News reported. The unanimity of the ruling means no member of the Missouri Supreme Court dissented from blocking the Republican-favored plan.

On the same evening, a separate decision came out of Maryland. That state's highest court reinstated a redistricting referendum, an effort led by Democrats, onto Maryland's November ballot. As a result, Maryland voters will weigh in directly on the redistricting question this fall rather than having the matter resolved in court or by lawmakers alone. Taken together, the two rulings resolved a pair of disputed map fights in a single evening, with the midterm elections roughly two months away.

The context

Both cases grew out of the broader contest over congressional district lines heading into the midterms. In Missouri, Republicans had drawn a new congressional map with the aim of adding a seat to their column in the U.S. House, per The Hill's reporting. That plan drew a legal challenge that reached the state's highest court, which resolved the dispute unanimously against the map's use in November. In Maryland, the fight took a different form: a Democratic-led push to put a redistricting question before voters had been knocked off the ballot at some point before the state's top court intervened to restore it. The material available does not detail the lower-court proceedings, the legal reasoning in either ruling, or which map Missouri will now use in November.

Why it matters

Control of the U.S. House can turn on a handful of seats, and district boundaries help determine which seats are competitive. The Missouri ruling removes a map that, according to The Hill, was built to deliver Republicans an additional House seat -- a direct subtraction from one party's expected gains. The Maryland decision shifts a redistricting outcome from courtrooms to voters, adding a ballot-box contest over district lines this fall. Coming two months before the midterms, the twin rulings settle two live disputes at a point when election administrators and campaigns need final maps to plan around.

What’s next

Maryland voters will decide the redistricting referendum in November. In Missouri, the immediate question is what map will govern the state's congressional races now that the Republican-drawn plan is blocked; the available material does not say what replaces it or whether further legal steps are planned. Watch for responses from Missouri officials and any appeals or new map proposals as the midterms approach.