Missouri Appeals Court Orders State to Use GOP Map for Nov Elections

A Missouri appeals court issued an order Monday forcing the state to adopt a GOP-drawn congressional map for November's elections. This decision overturns a string of rulings from the Supreme Court. The St. Louis-based Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delivered the judgment just one day before absentee and mail-in ballots were supposed to ship out to voters. Military and overseas recipients have already received their forms, according to the Associated Press.

"This Court holds that Missouri's current plan to use the 2022 map in the November 2026 general election violates the Constitution," Eighth Circuit Judge Stephen R. Clark wrote in a prior decision. The appeals panel upheld this view on Monday. Only the 2025 map fits the Constitution and federal law, he stated. That specific map came from Missouri's Republican-dominated state assembly in 2025. It has faced rejection twice by the U.S. Supreme Court on procedural grounds, most recently earlier this month.

The new layout splits Missouri's 5th Congressional District into two pieces. This district covers the state's largest metropolitan area centered on Kansas City. Doing so likely eliminates one of the state's two Democratic-leaning districts. Despite a wave of legal challenges, Missouri used the 2025 map for its August primary elections. An August ruling from a state trial court noted that switching back to the 2022 map would move hundreds of thousands of voters into different districts compared to where they cast their ballots in the August primaries.

The Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities announced it would not use the 2025 map for November. They argued in an appeal filing that the state lacked enough time to print new ballots, according to the AP. Opponents shared this view. People Not Politicians executive director Richard von Glahn said, "Ballots have been printed, and Missourians have already voted." Thousands more would vote before the order takes effect. He urged officials to stop wasting taxpayer money on pointless legal action and focus on administering elections instead.

The appeals panel countered that precedent exists for printing new ballots in such a short window. The panel delayed its ruling by one week to let opponents appeal to the Supreme Court again. President Donald Trump has championed the redrawn map strongly. He blasted the early September decision by Missouri's Supreme Court to revert to the 2022 maps. "The Missouri Supreme Court just ridiculously ruled in favor of changing the maps back to what they were a long time ago," Trump wrote in a Sept. 4 post on Truth Social. He called it Ancient History and claimed the ruling was horrible, ridiculous, and unConstitutional. He added that there simply wouldn't be enough time to change the map back with an election coming up so soon. "The Election Process, as usual, is being disturbed in America!" he wrote. Fox News Digital reached out to Missouri's Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Association for Missouri County Clerks, and People Not Politicians for further comment.