Supreme Court Strikes Down Missouri’s Redistricting Effort [Op-Ed]

Y’all, I can’t make heads or tails of the Supreme Court anymore. On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled against Missouri using a congressional map drawn to favor Republicans.

The New York Times reports that the court’s brief order didn’t include an explanation for the ruling, nor any dissents. Confusion now swirls among the state’s election officials over how the midterms will be conducted, since last month’s primaries used the redrawn map. The issue is exacerbated by the fact that the deadline to finalize ballots was on Tuesday, so there’s not really time to make adjustments that reflect the new map.

From The New York Times:

Holding a general election with a different map than what was used in the primary is rare legal territory, with no specific guidance so far from the courts on how nominees should be selected.

Thursday’s ruling landed just as a hearing about remapping was about to begin at the Missouri Supreme Court in Jefferson City.

That court’s judges were considering whether to hold the secretary of state, Denny Hoskins, in contempt for not following their order to use the previous House map, which would position Democrats to retain a seat in the Kansas City area.

Before Thursday’s order from Washington, Missouri Republican leaders had been insisting they would stick with their preferred map for the general election.

In Jefferson City, a lawyer from the Missouri attorney general’s office, William J. Seidleck,  said the secretary of state’s office was “evaluating next steps.”

Missouri’s redistricting effort has had a long, complicated road. 

The problem is that Missouri’s state legislature has consistently been ignoring the will of the people for years. Missouri residents voted to strike down the state’s abortion ban, and the state legislature responded by implementing as many restrictions as they could on abortion. Missouri residents voted to expand sick leave benefits, only for the state legislature to veto it. This became so common that a coalition formed to fight back against the legislature’s attempts to undermine voters. 

Last summer, Missouri was among the first states to answer President Donald Trump’s call to redraw their congressional map to give Republicans an advantage in the midterms. They redrew the map to split Kansas City into two districts to gain another Republican seat. 

The redistricting effort was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as a ballot initiative was quickly announced that sought to place the new map on the ballot. The ballot initiative gained enough signatures to be placed on the ballot, but Secretary of State Denny Hoskins said the signatures wouldn’t be counted until after the midterms. 

It’s almost like if Hoskins had just done his job and not tried to undermine the will of the people, we wouldn’t be in a situation where the midterms will be conducted using a different map than the primaries. 

“The law is the law; the Missouri Constitution is clear, as was the Missouri Supreme Court,” Richard von Glahn, the executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, said in a statement. People Not Politicians is one of the groups advocating against the redistricting effort and the Missouri state legislature. 

Here’s the thing: am I against the Missouri redistricting effort? Absolutely. That said, we are only two months away from the midterm election, and changing the map after the primary seems likely to create voter confusion, and I’m not sure anyone really wins by reversing the map so close to the election. 

Sure, this looks like a good thing, but it also makes me concerned about how it may ultimately rule on the Postal Service’s rule that would withhold mail-in ballots in states that don’t submit their voter rolls to an online portal run by the federal government. 

While the court previously struck down a ruling by a Texas court that blocked the state’s redistricting effort because the ruling came too close to the primaries (it was six months away), it appears they no longer care about how their rulings could create chaos ahead of an election. 

So while I’m glad Missouri voters have been heard, I can’t help but wait for the other shoe to drop. 

SEE ALSO:

Missouri Legislature Passes Gerrymandered Congressional Map

Judge Rules Missouri Can Use Redrawn Map In November Midterms [Op-Ed]

Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe Sets Special Session For Redistricting

Missouri’s Redistricting Effort To Be Petitioned Next Week

Missouri House Republicans Gerrymander Congressional Map