Missouri Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Congressional Map

The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on whether the state's new congressional map complies with a constitutional compactness requirement and whether it can be used for this year's elections. Republican officials adopted the map last September following the 2020 census.

A separate case argued the same day contends the new districts should have been automatically suspended in December when opponents submitted more than 300,000 petition signatures seeking a public referendum. Under the map passed by the Republican-led legislature, Missouri sends six Republicans and two Democrats to the U.S. House.

A state judge in March rejected claims that the map violates the compactness requirement, concluding the new districts are on average more compact even if the 5th District itself is not. That ruling has been appealed to the state Supreme Court.

The Missouri case is one of several redistricting battles as the November midterm elections approach. In South Carolina, Republican lawmakers are considering whether to redraw the state's only Democratic-held congressional seat. State senators have not yet decided whether to take up a House-passed plan after the legislature's regular session ends Thursday.

The House also appears ready to pass legislation that could delay the June 9 congressional primaries until August. Any redistricting effort would require Senate approval, where support is less certain and a two-thirds majority would be needed before Thursday's session ends.

Some senators have expressed doubts that the proposed map would guarantee a Republican victory in the district long held by a Democrat and fear it could make other districts more competitive.

In Louisiana, a Senate committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a new U.S. House map, with a full Senate vote expected Thursday. Options under consideration range from leaving Democrats favored in one district to eliminating all majority-Black districts.

Dozens of civil rights activists and the state's four Black congressmen elected since Reconstruction urged lawmakers during a nine-hour hearing last Friday to retain two majority-Black districts. A Republican state senator overseeing the redistricting committee acknowledged that a map eliminating all such districts would be difficult to defend in court.

In Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday overturned an order requiring a map with two largely Black districts and remanded the case to a lower court. Plaintiffs filed a new request Monday night to prevent the state from switching districts, arguing that absentee voting is already underway and that the Louisiana decision only undermined one of two grounds in the existing court order.

Virginia's Supreme Court this week rejected a new districting plan on procedural grounds. The plan had been expected to help Democrats gain as many as four additional congressional seats. Republicans anticipate netting as many as 14 seats from new maps already enacted in several states including Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Tennessee.

Democrats believe they could gain six seats from new maps in California and Utah. Last week the Virginia court struck down the Democratic redistricting effort. The battles extend beyond congressional maps. In Fayette County, Tennessee, Black residents who won a new map last year for the county commission through Voting Rights Act lawsuits now worry those majority-minority districts could be erased.

From 1982 to 2024, nearly two-thirds of more than 450 Section 2 challenges involved local government practices such as school boards, county commissions and city councils, according to a University of Michigan study.

The Missouri Supreme Court is expected to rule on both compactness and the petition-suspension issues in coming weeks, with the state's August 4 primary elections approaching as a key deadline for final map determinations.