Missouri’s chaotic redistricting battle is finally over — or so America thought.
A three-judge panel for the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that the Show Me State must use its 2025 congressional map in the upcoming midterm elections. The new map would take Missouri from a six Republican-two Democrat map (enacted in 2022) to a seven Republican-one Democrat map.
“This Court holds that Missouri’s current plan to use the 2022 map in the November 2026 general election violates the Constitution. Only use of the 2025 map complies with the Constitution and federal law,” the court held.
The panel was comprised of Judge James Loken, a Bush 41 appointee, and Judges David Stras and Justin Smith, both Trump appointees.
The entire kerfuffle began earlier this month, when the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the state must use its 2022 map for the midterms and to include a statewide referendum on the 2025 map on Missouri’s 2026 fall ballot. The left-wing People Not Politicians‘ efforts to get the referendum placed on the ballot were initially rejected by Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins.
Missouri-based Chief District Judge Stephen Clark, a Trump appointee, issued a temporary restraining order days later in a federal challenge brought by several congressional candidates, mandating the Show Me State to use the 2025 map for the midterms. That ruling came moments after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected an emergency request by Missouri officials to pause the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision.
SCOTUS ultimately froze Clark’s TRO without explanation the following day. The high court said that the lower court’s order is paused “pending the disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari in this Court, if such a writ is timely sought.”
[READ: Missouri Freedom Caucus Eyes Judicial Reform After State Redistricting Debacle]
In its per curiam opinion, the 8th Circuit noted estimates indicating that more than 1.4 million Missourians “could not vote for the congressional district nominees who will appear on their November 2026 general election ballot, and [how] more than a quarter-million Missourians who voted in the August 2026 primary election cast a vote for a congressional district candidate who now cannot represent them.” Permitting the state to use its 2022 map under these circumstances, it said, would allow “some Missouri voters [to] have more say than others on who represents them in Congress.”
“Missouri’s primary is ‘the initial stage in a two-stage process by which the people choose their public officers.’ … Missouri cannot deprive more than 1.4 million of its residents of their choice in half of that process without violating Article I, Section 2” of the U.S. Constitution, the court ruled. “Therefore, this Court holds that, because Missouri used the 2025 map in the August 2026 primary election, using the 2022 map in the November 2026 general election violates Article I, Section 2.”
Stras authored a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part. While citing the “probable” violation of Article I Section 2, the Trump appointee said he “would not even get that far because People Not Politicians” and its co-challenger “lack standing.”
“For that reason,” he wrote, “I would dismiss the appeal.”
In ordering Clark to issue a permanent injunction requiring Missouri to use its 2025 map for the midterms, the 8th Circuit directed the district court to pause implementation of that order until 5 p.m. on Sept. 28 to “allow for Supreme Court review.” PNP indicated Monday evening that it will appeal the appellate court’s ruling to SCOTUS once again.
