Missouri will run its November general election on districts drawn in 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court granted an emergency stay on Thursday, September 10, 2026, that bars the state from using the redrawn congressional map backed by President Donald Trump — a reversal that arrives even though the state’s primary was already conducted on the new lines.

No justice publicly dissented, and the justices gave no reasoning in the brief, unsigned order, as is common when the court handles emergency applications. It read: “The application for stay presented to Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh and by him referred to the Court is granted.”

What the Stay Does Not Do

Thursday’s action was procedural: the court issued no opinion, did not rule on the merits and did not declare the map unconstitutional. Stephen Clark, chief judge of the federal district court for eastern Missouri, had issued a ruling, and the justices paused it while the litigation continues. That freeze leaves the Missouri Supreme Court’s order as the only governing court order, and the 2022 congressional map applies. The map has now been blocked for the second time.

Two Courts, Two Conflicting Orders

The redrawn districts, known as HB 1, won approval from Missouri Republicans in 2025, and the plan became law that September when Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed it. A unanimous Missouri Supreme Court held on September 3 that the new lines had never come into legal force, directing that the earlier map govern unless the electorate signs off on the change. Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, had argued that skipping the new map would produce confusion, expense and practical difficulties; the court found that unpersuasive.

An emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court followed from Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles emergency appeals from Missouri, refused on Tuesday, September 8, to disturb the state court’s ruling, denying the state’s request on his own rather than referring it to his colleagues.

Clark issued a temporary restraining order within an hour of that decision becoming public, instructing the state to use the 2025 map instead. Republican Rep. Robert Onder, whose seat covers Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District, had brought the federal case on September 4, joined by two individual voters and another congressional candidate. In Clark’s view, the federal challengers would suffer irreparable harm absent his order, since many Missouri voters would otherwise face a November choice among nominees they had no role in selecting.

Referendum organizer Richard von Glahn and the group People Not Politicians had both intervened in the federal suit, and they asked the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the night of September 8 to put Clark’s order on hold. The appeals court refused on Wednesday, September 9, and that afternoon the organizers went to the justices with an emergency stay application, docketed as People Not Politicians v. Onder. Because the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling rested only on state law, von Glahn argued, the U.S. Supreme Court lacked the power to weigh in at all.

A Primary and a General on Different Maps

Voters cast primary ballots August 4 under the new districts; the November general election will now use the 2022 map. The 8th Circuit heard oral arguments on Thursday, September 17, two days before the federal deadline for military and overseas ballots. The panel appeared sympathetic to the plaintiffs but had not ruled as of Saturday, September 19. Election authorities did not wait: ballots reached military and overseas voters on Friday, September 18, the last business day before that cutoff, printed on the 2022 lines. A ruling now would land on votes already cast. “You cannot pull a voted ballot back out of a tabulator and redo it,” Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon said. Even a ruling for the Republican plaintiffs would not restore the 2025 map on its own: the justices said their stay holds while the case is before the appeals court and through any petition to review its ruling.

Hoskins said in a statement that only the Missouri Supreme Court’s order remains in effect: “In accordance with that order, my Office is directing local election authorities to use the 2022 congressional map.” He had told local election officials to use the new districts, and that same court responded by ordering him to appear at a contempt hearing on Thursday, September 10; a federal judge declined to halt the hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court acted. That afternoon the state court found he had been in contempt of its September 3 order but said he purged it by switching to the 2022 map.

Reaction and the November Ballot

Ally Triolo, the Republican National Committee’s election integrity communications director, said in a statement that a string of legal victories had defended what she called Missouri’s fair and lawful map, and that the 11th-hour ruling pulled the rug out from under voters who had already cast primary ballots. “Changing the rules mid-election is reckless and wrong,” she said. Switching districts before the general election would violate voters’ federal rights, Republican state officials have argued.

Under the redrawn lines, the Kansas City-based 5th Congressional District held by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, is dismantled, with parts of the seat shifted into neighboring districts and the remainder extended into heavily Republican territory. As drawn, the plan gave Republicans a strong chance of taking seven of Missouri’s eight U.S. House seats, against the current six-to-two Republican advantage. In the U.S. House, the party holds a 219-214 majority, including one independent who caucuses with them.

More than 300,000 petition signatures came in from opponents of the map in December 2025, seeking a statewide referendum. Hoskins rejected the petition on August 4, the last day he could do so, and von Glahn sued in state court that same day. Ordered onto the ballot by the Missouri Supreme Court, the measure appears as Proposition A, a veto referendum, on November 3, letting voters decide whether the redrawn districts can be used in future elections.

Trump backed the redrawn map and previously called the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling “ridiculous.” The September 10 order, which holds Clark’s ruling in abeyance as the underlying litigation moves forward, has drawn no public response from him.