Missouri Map

Missouri's congressional map got blocked again Friday, the third time the Supreme Court has stepped in, and 2022 district lines stay in place for the midterms.

Three rulings, one outcome. The unsigned order noted no dissents. Justices sided with People Not Politicians, the group that asked them to intervene, NBC News reported. Six Republicans and two Democrats now represent Missouri in the U.S. House under the map in force, according to NBC News. The map Republicans wanted would have cut that Democratic count to one. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's 5th District would have lost its Kansas City base entirely, stretched instead into rural, Republican-leaning counties, CNN reported.

Missouri lawmakers passed the new map last year at President Donald Trump's urging. It was part of a broader Republican push to redraw districts nationwide before the midterms, NPR reported. Nine or 10 seats shifted toward the GOP across several states as a result of that push, NPR reported. California and other Democratic-led states drew new maps of their own in response, NBC News reported.

The case bounced between courts for weeks. Missouri's Supreme Court ruled this month that the new map never took legal effect, because opponents had gathered enough signatures to force a November referendum on it. That court held Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in contempt for using the map in the August primary anyway, NBC News reported. A federal judge ruled for the new map. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed him this week, ordering Missouri to switch maps again, according to NPR and CNN. Justices hadn't explained their reasoning in the earlier rulings, CNN reported.

That switch would have landed after voting was already underway. Ballots for military and overseas voters had gone out. Absentee voting had begun, too, People Not Politicians told the court in its emergency filing, CNN reported.

Voters are still set to decide the map's fate at the ballot box in November. More than a million residents had already voted under the newer map in the primary, Republicans argued, so it should stand, NPR reported. Hoskins and GOP lawmakers dragged out the process to force the map through, opponents countered, NPR reported.

"Ballots using the 2022 map have been printed and mailed, and absentee voting, both by mail and in-person, began today," the group told the court, according to CNN.