Appeals court weighs Missouri congressional map despite Supreme Court block

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A federal appeals court panel on Thursday was considering an attempt to resurrect new Missouri congressional districts backed by President Donald Trump, even though the U.S. Supreme Court blocked those districts from being used in the November election.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the long-running dispute over whether the state should use the new Republican-drawn U.S. House districts, just as the state did in its August primary. But it wasn't immediately clear what the impact would be, even if the panel rules in favor of the new map. That's because the U.S. Supreme Court previously blocked the enforcement of a lower court order favoring the map pending a potential appeal and eventual decision by the high court.

Missouri currently is set to run its November election with the same congressional districts it used in 2024 and 2022, following prior decisions by both the Missouri Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court.

Local elections officials said in a court filing that they already are printing ballots with those districts and face a Friday deadline under federal law to mail absentee ballots to overseas citizens and military voters. State law requires absentee ballots to be available to all other voters by next Tuesday.

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To try to change districts at this late date would be “practically impossible” and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the filing by the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities.

Missouri’s redistricting battle has been the longest, most complex and confusing among roughly a dozen states that sought to change their U.S. House districts over the past year. Trump spurred the unusual spate of mid-decade redistricting when he urged Republican-led states to redraw districts to gain an edge in the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress and affect his agenda.