A federal appeals court Thursday heard a case aimed at resurrecting a congressional map seeking to oust Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver.
And while the judges in the case appeared sympathetic to the Republican plaintiffs, redistricting proponents would also need to overcome barriers from the U.S. Supreme Court and warnings from elections officials that it's now too late to change course.
At issue is a decision from the Missouri Supreme Court that ruled a referendum over a map passed in 2025 could go to voters – and that the plan seeking to oust Cleaver never went in effect. After that decision, plaintiffs that include two congressional candidates – U.S. Rep. Bob Onder and state Sen. Rick Brattin – sued Secretary of State Denny Hoskins over using a 2022 map with a safe seat for Cleaver in the upcoming general election.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark issued a temporary restraining order on Hoskins using any congressional map other than the 2025 lines. But that order was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court's order remained in effect "pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit" and also depending how how the U.S. Supreme Court handles the case.
On Thursday, three judges from the U.S. 8th District Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case. One of the judges, David Stras, questioned whether the intervenors, which involved a representative from the group People Not Politicians that backed the referendum, had standing.
"I am actually having looked through the papers, extremely concerned about the standing of the interveners," Stras said.
People Not Politicians attorney Chuck Hatfield contended they did, based, in part, that proponents of initiative petition have special status under Missouri law. But Marc Ellinger, an attorney for Onder and Brattin, disagreed and added that the state is an adversarial party now since Hoskins is now telling election officials to use the 2022 maps.
"[People Not Politicians' Richard von Glahn's] sole interest was to put a referendum together, and all their filings indicate that," Ellinger said. "The effect of what we've got here is something that affects all citizens of the state of Missouri."
Missouri Solicitor General Louis Capozzi, who was representing Hoskins, said the fact the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay for People Not Politicians strongly suggests that the high court believes the group's representatives do have standing.
But a bigger issue that Stras raised was whether Missouri has effectively reached the "point of no return" and that it's too late to change the election.
Hatfield pointed to a brief from Missouri's county clerks and election authorities stating changing back to the 2025 map would be a massive undertaking.
That brief stated that since Hoskins' latest guidance to use the 2022 map, election authorities' ballots "are already in production, either by in-house ballot printers or vendors." And the brief also noted that counties must soon send out ballots to military personnel and make them available to people who want to vote absentee.
"We agree with them that it's already too late," Hatfield said. "Those ballots are printed."
Ellinger, though, said that it was possible to obtain a waiver to the federal law overseeing when military ballots need to be sent out.
"I think we've got a little ways to go still," Ellinger said.
The court did not indicate when they may rule on the case. It's also unclear whether they can issue any ruling that wouldn't be affected by the U.S. Supreme Court's stay from last week.
Capozzi said it was important for the court to decide the constitutionality of Missouri's referendum process in relation to redistricting plans – at least for future scenarios.
"Every time the state tries to redistrict, at a minimum, 3.3 percent of voters can force the use of their preferred map for at least two years. That's not democracy," Capozzi said. "That is profoundly anti-democratic."
Missouri Republicans passed the 2025 map last year at the behest of President Donald Trump. It's part of a nationwide mid-decade redistricting push that featured Republican states like Missouri, Texas and Florida passing more GOP-leaning maps – and places like California approving more Democratic ones.
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