Missouri redistricting challengers return to SCOTUS in latest twist over GOP maps

Missouri's Republican-drawn congressional maps, crafted to hand the GOP seven of eight U.S. House seats, are back at the Supreme Court after a district judge and a sitting justice ruled opposite ways within minutes of each other. Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied emergency relief Tuesday, letting the Missouri Supreme Court's ruling stand that old district lines must be used in November; U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark then reinstated the new maps almost immediately after.

The dispute traces back to a referendum drive that gathered over 300,000 signatures to let voters decide on the new maps, which Missouri's Republican secretary of state rejected before losing at the state's highest court. That court found the referendum petition suspended the new districts retroactively, meaning the old, pre-redistricting map should govern the general election even though the new one was already used in the August primary.

Referendum organizers are now asking Kavanaugh to make sure the old maps actually stick, arguing the federal court's order forces Missouri election officials to choose which court's contempt they'd rather risk. The court has asked state officials to respond by Thursday morning.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.