Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is trying to fend off accusations he unlawfully told local election officials to use a more GOP-leaning congressional map for the November election.
But as the GOP official prepares to defend himself Thursday in Jefferson City, the Missouri attorney general is trying to stop the unprecedented hearing from going forward.
At issue are two conflicting orders over which map Missouri should use in the November general election. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled last week that since a referendum on a map passed in 2025 could be on the ballot, election officials must use a map passed in 2022.
But minutes after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh dismissed an emergency appeal of the Missouri Supreme Court decision, U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark issued a temporary restraining order in a separate case barring Hoskins from using any congressional map besides the one passed in 2025. Clark issued his 14-day order after determining that having a different map in place for the general election than what was in place in the primary likely violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
Hoskins then told local officials that they had to use congressional lines that were enacted on behalf of President Trump to oust Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II. Backers of the referendum asked the Missouri Supreme Court to hold Hoskins in contempt. Missouri Supreme Court Justice Brent Powell scheduled a hearing where Hoskins must appear at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Referendum proponents note that Clark's order did not annul the state Supreme Court order barring Hoskins or any elections officials from using the 2025 map. Chuck Hatfield, an attorney for the advocacy group People Not Politicians, which spearheaded the referendum effort, wrote in a Tuesday filing that Hoskins violated the Missouri Supreme Court's injunction on telling local election officials to use the 2025 map.
"This Court should make clear that regardless of other orders (except from the United States Supreme Court) the Missouri Secretary of State must comply with this court's injunction," Hatfield wrote. "The Court should instruct all local election authorities that HB 1 is not the law and has never been the law."
Hatfield is referring to how the 2025 map never actually went into effect, since People Not Politicians turned in enough signatures to force a November 2026 vote.
Hoskins told St. Louis Public Radio onTuesday that Clark's order takes precedence. And a key lawyer with Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway's office wrote on Wednesday that the federal restraining order gives Hoskins no other option but to tell local election officials to use the 2025 map.
Missouri Solicitor General Louis Capozzi wrote the Missouri Supreme Court "must not take the radical step of holding the Secretary of State in contempt for following a federal court order."
"This Court's order can no longer compel the Secretary," Missouri Solicitor General Louis Capozzi wrote. "Per the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the Secretary must follow the federal-law injunction issued by the federal court," Capozzi wrote. "So long as the District Court's order stands, the Secretary must obey it."
Capozzi is also asking Clark to stop the Missouri Supreme Court from holding the contempt hearing. Clark has not ruled on that motion yet.
Meanwhile, a three-judge panel from the 8th District Court of Appeals denied People Not Politicians' request to stay Clark's ruling. The three judges wrote they "either lack jurisdiction over the appeal or, based on the briefing we have so far, the stay factors have not been met."
St. Louis University Professor of Law Anders Walker expects the dispute to eventually make its way back to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"It's unusual to have this kind of a street fight between the state supreme court, a federal district judge, and the governor," Walker said. "This is like a Clint Eastwood movie where they're just going at each other, sort of at high noon."
Waiting on guidance
Meanwhile, Missouri election officials are still waiting for the legal dust to clear before they start preparing for the November elections.
St. Louis County Democratic Elections Director Eric Fey said Missouri's largest county is holding off on preparations for the election for now. He noted that while the Missouri Supreme Court explicitly ordered election officials to use the 2022 map, Clark's order "is not clear at all in that regard."
"It's clear that it applies to the Secretary of State," Fey said. "In the opinion of our attorney, it probably doesn't apply to the local election authorities because we're not named in his order. So it leaves us in a very bizarre legal no man's land in terms of what we're supposed to do."
Fey said that St. Louis County is in a slightly better position than some because it has technology that can print out someone's ballots on demand when they go to the polls. That's not the case for other counties, which have to print ballots ahead of the election.
"We are pretty confident we can make this work as long as we hear something from the courts by the beginning of next week," Fey said. "It will take a significant amount of overtime here and you know working those extra hours, but we're confident we can get it done. Now, the real unknown is if a court would change course immediately prior to the 18th or 19th. Then, kind of, all bets are off."
Fey is referring to the mid-September deadlines to send ballots to military personnel.
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