Federal Appeals Court Pulls Another Switcheroo On GOP-Friendly Missouri Map

By Mark Tanos

A federal appeals court just ordered Missouri to run its midterms on a Republican-drawn map the Supreme Court has already blocked twice.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that state officials must adopt the 2025 map for November, even after SCOTUS justices signaled earlier this month that federal judges should keep their distance from the fight, according to Politico.

Should the map survive court challenges, Republicans stand to gain one House seat by dismantling the Kansas City district held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.

The panel handed down a permanent injunction that holds off until Sept. 28 so the high court has room to weigh in, Democracy Docket reported. At the heart of the decision was a constitutional argument that voters must stay inside a single district through both the primary and the general election. (RELATED: Missouri Joins Texas In Passing GOP-Friendly Redistricting Before Midterms)

Because Missouri already ran its August primary on the 2025 lines, the judges concluded that reverting to the 2022 map would strand voters between two districts. Citing figures from the conservative Club for Growth, the court noted roughly 1.4 million residents sit in different districts depending on the map.

NEW: It’s the gerrymander that won’t die.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has revived a GOP-friendly Missouri map expected to net the party a congressional seat — despite what everyone thought was an earlier death knell from SCOTUS.

w/ @joshgerstein https://t.co/782FwRyfrx

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 21, 2026

Two judges backed the outcome, Politico reported. Judge James Loken, named by George H.W. Bush, and Trump appointee Judge Justin Smith formed the majority. A third, Trump appointee David Stras, argued the group challenging the map had no standing to appeal, a position that sits awkwardly against the Supreme Court’s own order granting those opponents relief.

The GOP map’s opponents intend to fight on. People Not Politicians Missouri said it will race an emergency appeal to SCOTUS.

“Ballots have been printed, and Missourians have already voted. Thousands more will vote before this order seeks to take effect,” Executive Director Richard von Glahn told Democracy Docket.

The ruling is the latest in a series of reversals. Missouri’s legislature passed the new map last September. Democrats responded by gathering signatures for referendum that would put the new map to a vote in Nov. 2026 and keep the old map in place pending its result. Missouri’s Republican secretary of state then declared the referendum illegal, only to be unanimously overruled by the state’s supreme court. State officials made an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected on Sept. 8. Within minutes, U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark, a Trump appointee, blocked a return to the old lines, but SCOTUS stepped in again two days later to freeze Clark’s order without any explanation, CBS News reported.

Republicans cling to a slim House majority, and the president’s party usually sheds seats in a midterm year.