Supreme Court hands fresh blow to GOP's house hopes just ahead of midterms

WASHINGTON, DC: In a major blow to the Republican Party just before the midterms, the Supreme Court on Thursday, September 10, pushed back against a Republican-friendly congressional map in Missouri, siding with the opponent.

Republican lawmakers passed a new map in a 2025 extraordinary session called by Governor Mike Kehoe. The redrawn version of the state map sought to dismantle Rep Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City district and split it into surrounding rural zones, creating an extra seat for Republicans.

Supreme Court orders use of older Missouri map

The Supreme Court decision preserved Missouri's current 6–2 Republican majority across the state's eight congressional districts, denying Republicans the additional seat they had hoped to gain.

The order, issued with no explanation and no noted dissent, means that the state will use a previous map that included six, rather than seven, winnable seats for the GOP.

The 2022 map keeps the Kansas City-based 5th Congressional District and the 1st Congressional District (St Louis) safe for Democrats.

The election loss for Republicans was announced by a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court.

The decision also undermines GOP aspirations to make an advantage out of state congressional maps across the country to retain Republican control of the House next year.

GOP setback comes after intense legal showdown: a timeline

The SCOTUS issued the decision after an emergency appeal was filed by a group called People Not Politicians, which had organized a campaign to put the new GOP-friendly map to a referendum.

Missouri’s highest court had backed that effort, effectively requiring the state to go back to an earlier congressional map. When state officials appealed that ruling to the US Supreme Court last week, Justice Brett Kavanaugh declined to review the case.

But that was not the end of the dispute. Minutes after Kavanaugh issued a brief one-sentence order, a federal judge in Missouri, who was handling a different case, issued a temporary order that effectively pushed state officials back to the GOP-friendly map.

Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, said the state would use the GOP-friendly map.

People Not Politicians then filed several appeals seeking to stop that order issued by US District Judge Stephen Clark, a Trump nominee. On Wednesday evening, the case returned to the US Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court quickly resolved the case without issuing a written explanation or having any justice dissent.

Supreme Court warns courts against affecting status quo

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority, and Kavanaugh in particular, have also frequently cited a legal principle known as the “Purcell principle.”

It warns federal courts against making decisions in election cases that could change the status quo shortly before an election.

Notably, earlier Thursday, the DOJ argued before the Supreme Court that the opponent had no right to sue, as they couldn’t explain how the new map could have hurt or affected them.