In a decision with national political implications, the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Thursday that a referendum should be placed on the November ballot allowing voters to decide whether to keep or reject the new Republican-drawn congressional map.
That also means the gerrymandered districts will not be in place for the Nov. 3 election, which instead will use the previous map that the Missouri General Assembly approved after the 2020 census.
Secretary of State Denny Hoskins attempted to block the referendum last month, claiming it was unconstitutional. But his arguments were overwhelmingly rejected.
On Friday morning, the Missouri Supreme Court also denied Hoskins’ request to pause its order requiring the state to use the old map for the upcoming midterms.
Speaking on KCUR’s Up To Date on Friday, reporter Jason Rosenbaum of St. Louis Public Radio said that he wasn’t surprised by the result.
“If you watched Chief Justice Brent Powell, who is an Eric Greitens appointee, basically tell the solicitor general that they were not going to suppress a right to a referendum for this, the writing was kind of on the wall,” Rosenbaum said. “I think for outsiders it was surprising because I think a lot of people had assumed that Cleaver was basically politically dead in the water.”
Rosenbaum described the language in the Supreme Court ruling as “emphatic.”
"The court really criticized the secretary of state for delaying the decision until the last day, and basically said the consequences after this are on him, not on them,” Rosenbaum said.
The result breathes new life into the campaign of veteran Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri’s 5th District, who was expected to lose his reelection bid because the district was redrawn to favor Republicans. He’s facing conservative state Sen. Rick Brattin in the November contest, a race that could help determine which party controls Congress.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has said she will soon challenge the decision by filing an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I don't want to predict what the U.S. Supreme Court is going to do, because they often do get involved in federal redistricting cases,” Rosenbaum explained. “But I think the big hurdle that both Hanaway and Secretary of State Hoskins will have trouble getting over is the court said plainly that this map that was used in August never was law and has never been in effect. So, I have a hard time understanding how the U.S. Supreme Court is going to force the state of Missouri to use a map that never actually existed in any form in law.”
The Jackson County Election Board’s directors said on Friday that they are prepared to comply with the court’s ruling.
- Jason Rosenbaum, St. Louis Public Radio politics correspondent
