GOP Scores Redistricting Win With MO Supreme Court Ruling

Republicans scored a win on the redistricting front on Tuesday when the Missouri Supreme Court upheld HB1, a 2025 measure that redrew the Show-Me State's congressional districts mid-decade.

On redistricting, in a 4-3 ruling, the court rejected arguments that the Missouri Constitution allows lawmakers to redraw congressional lines only once a decade, after a new census. Instead, the majority said the constitution requires the legislature to act after each census but does not expressly bar it from returning later to pass another map.
Missouri Republicans pushed through the new congressional plan last year after pressure from President Donald Trump and allies eager to make Missouri’s Kansas City-area district more winnable for the GOP.

After the 2020 census, Missouri lawmakers redrew the map in 2022. Though there was discussion at the time of aiming for a 7-1 map (favoring Republicans), ultimately, they went with a 6-2 map, leaving CD-1 (around St. Louis) and CD-5 (around Kansas City) in Democrat hands.

But in 2025, after a renewed push in other Republican-led states, the legislature passed HB1, which effectively splits CD-5 (currently represented by Democrat Emmanuel Cleaver) and results in a 7-1 map after all.

Naturally, the new map has been challenged — in multiple lawsuits. In this one, plaintiffs asserted that the Missouri Constitution only allows redistricting once per decade. But the trial court ruled otherwise, and a 4-3 majority of the state Supreme Court affirmed that decision, stating:

The obligation to legislate congressional districts once a decade does not limit the General Assembly's power to redistrict more frequently than once a decade. Simply put, "when" does not mean "only when." Section 45, therefore, falls squarely within the rule that "an express enumeration of legislative powers … cannot be considered as the exclusion of others not named unless accompanied by negative terms." Bohrer v.Toberman, 227 S.W.2d 719, 723 (Mo. banc 1950). The General Assembly may redistrict more frequently than once a decade because the power to do so is not "expressly restrained by the Constitution." Liberty Oil, 813 S.W.2d at 297 (citing Bohrer, 227 S.W.2d at 723). The mid-decade redistricting effectuated by HB 1 is consistent with article III, section 45, and does not "clearly contravene[]" it. City of St. Louis, 682 S.W.3d at 396 (quotation omitted).

(And for those wondering, the four judges in the majority are Republican appointees; one Republican appointee joined the two Democrat appointees in dissent.)

This is not the final-final word on the matter, though.

But the fate of Missouri’s new map still hangs in the balance as Democrats continue to pursue multiple avenues to repeal the new map.
The Democratic-aligned National Redistricting Foundation is asking the state’s Supreme Court to take up the question of whether the new map violates the state Constitution’s district compactness requirement in a separate lawsuit.
And a group of Missouri Democrats are seeking to freeze the map by forcing it to a referendum, which has been the subject of several legal challenges. A freeze could effectively keep the map used in 2024 in place, preserving that deep-blue Democratic seat.

New York's Nicole Malliotakis Gets Good News From SCOTUS on Her District Ahead of Midterms

In other words, there's another case attacking the map on another basis that remains pending before the Missouri Supreme Court — and there's also the question of the referendum. The catch there, though, is whether either can/will be resolved in time to block the 7-1 map for the 2026 midterms. Filing for the primaries opened February 24 and closes March 31. The primary is set for August 4th.

For now, at least, Missouri's 7-1 map governs.

Editor's Note: The Democrats are doing everything in their power to undermine the integrity of our elections.

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