Federal judge orders Missouri to proceed with GOP-friendly map after Supreme Court balked

By John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — Back-to-back court orders on Tuesday injected chaos into Missouri’s plans for this year’s midterms, with state officials and a group opposed to a GOP-friendly congressional map racing into multiple courts with less than two months before Election Day.

A federal district court ordered Missouri to proceed with a congressional map for the November midterm elections that would benefit the Republican Party by giving it a chance to flip an additional seat, stepping into the case shortly after the US Supreme Court shot down an emergency appeal from GOP officials in the state.

The unusual legal machinations left uncertain whether Missouri would head into the upcoming elections with a map that gives Republicans another seat favor as the party has attempted to retain its narrow grip on the House of Representatives.

US District Judge Stephen Clark handed down a temporary order late Tuesday that would require the state to proceed under a map created last year that targets a Democratic district based in Kansas City. That decision came minutes after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied a request from Missouri Republicans to use that same map.

“Using a different map for the general election would wreak havoc on the fairness and orderliness of Missouri’s congressional elections, calling into question the candidacy of those nominated in the primaries and the votes of those who voted in the primaries,” wrote Clark, who was nominated to the bench by President Donald Trump. “Widespread voter confusion would inevitably follow.”

Earlier Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied Missouri’s request to use that same map.

The decision was issued by Kavanaugh, a conservative, who handles emergency cases rising from parts of the Midwest. Kavanaugh did not refer the case to the full court, a signal that he didn’t think the emergency appeal was significant enough to do so. He also did not explain his reasoning, and there were no dissents.

Clark’s decision said that the plaintiffs in the separate case — led by Republican Rep. Bob Onder — had sufficiently argued that switching the maps between the primary and the general could represent an equal protection problem.

The groups challenging Missouri maps have quickly appealed and began filing a series of emergency motions in an effort to pause Clark’s order.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, a Republican, said that the state was “prepared to follow and comply” the newer, lower court decision. Time is of the essence because the state was set to finalize its ballots for the November election on Tuesday evening.

“We maintain that changing the congressional map in between the primary and general elections is simply not feasible and profoundly unjust to Missouri voters,” she said.

SCOTUS set to decide several election cases

The Supreme Court’s ruling was the first of several quick-turn election cases the court is expected to decide in the coming days just weeks before the midterms. The justices are mulling a far more significant case dealing with President Donald Trump’s effort to change how mail ballots are sent to voters.

And earlier Tuesday, the Trump administration asked the high court to reinstate a controversial citizenship records system his administration has sought to wield for sweeping reviews of state voter rolls.

Missouri moved to the 7-1 Republican map under pressure from Trump, who has inspired an unusual mid-decade redistricting war in Republican and Democratic states.

“Today the law won,” Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, the group that challenged Missouri’s map said after the Supreme Court decision. “The Missouri constitution is clear as was the Missouri Supreme Court.”

If Missouri’s map is ultimately blocked for this year, Republicans would gain a net of nine seats in the US House of Representatives because of those redistricting efforts in other states.

Missouri’s new map, which was enacted last year, was used in the state’s primary election in August. But the state’s highest court ruled last week that officials in Missouri wrongly dismissed a petition with more than 300,000 signatures to let the state’s voters decide on the map via a referendum before it took effect.

The map targeted the 5th Congressional District, held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, by breaking up its Kansas City base and stretching it into rural and Republican-leaning parts of the state.

Missouri officials had raced up to the US Supreme Court, arguing that the state court decision would create a “federal-election-administration disaster” and “unprecedented chaos.” Organizers of the referendum who sued over the use of the map countered that if there was an election emergency it was Missouri’s own making.

Opponents of the map had submitted their petition for a referendum late last year, but state officials waited until August 4, the last possible date, which happened to be the day of the state’s primary, to declare that the state constitution’s right for voters to weigh in on legislation doesn’t apply to redistricting measures. The state supreme court rejected that interpretation.

The 6-3 conservative US Supreme Court has played a significant role in shaping the outcome of this year’s midterms. The court’s landmark decision earlier this year gutting a significant part of the Voting Rights Act led to new redistricting in several Republican states in the South. Meanwhile, the court allowed Texas to use a Republican-friendly map and permitted California to use a map that benefits Democrats.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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