WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court, for the second time, sided with opponents of a GOP-drawn congressional map in Missouri in a ruling that prevents that map from being used in the November elections.
The court on Sept. 10 suspended a federal judge's order that would have required the map that was drawn at the request of President Donald Trump to be used in the midterm elections, which will decide control of Congress.
The ruling should end the confusion that had unfolded when the judge issued his order soon after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Sept. 8 declined to block the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling that the disputed map must be approved by voters before it can take effect.
The map would have turned a seat held by Democrats into one
that Republicans are expected to win, helping Republicans hold onto their slim majority in the House.
The legal battle stemmed from Trump pushing red states to rejigger maps midway through the normal redistricting cycle.
The map approved by the Missouri Legislature last year breaks up a Democratic-held district in Kansas City, giving Republicans an advantage in seven of the state's eight House districts.
A group formed to oppose the new map, People Not Politicians Missouri, collected enough signatures to put the changes to a public vote through a ballot measure.
But Missouri’s secretary of state, Republican Denny Hoskins, said the state’s constitution doesn’t allow ballot measures over congressional redistricting.
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously disagreed in a decision handed down days before the state’s ballot was scheduled to be finalized – and after the August primary had been held using the new map.
Republicans argued that state court’s decision had inflicted “unprecedented chaos on Missouri.”
Lawyers for the group challenging the map -- People Not Politicians Missouri -- countered that any chaos was the fault of the secretary of state for waiting until the last possible day to issue his decision rejecting the ballot measure.
The group also argued that the federal judge lacked the authority to intervene.
“A federal district court cannot transform an unlawfully administered primary into a federal constitutional command that the State continue violating its own law through the general election,” the group’s lawyers wrote in asking the justices to intervene.
Multiple fights over congressional maps have been brought to the Supreme Court in the past year.
The justices ruled favorably for Republicans in redistricting battles in Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia and New York. The court sided with Democrats in a challenge to California’s new map.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court blocks GOP-preferred congressional map in Missouri
