The United States Supreme Court moved swiftly to shut down a Missouri Republican-backed redistricting push, issuing its ruling in under 45 minutes.
The court, with no noted dissents, stayed a district court order that Republicans had hoped would allow them to impose a new legislative map on the state.
The contested map would have effectively erased one of Missouri’s two Black representatives from the state’s congressional districts.
The redistricting battle took on the character of a civil procedure exam gone wrong, with Republicans and their legal allies accused of playing procedural shell games throughout the process.
Republican figures in the state went so far as to threaten impeachment against any state judge who ruled against their preferred redistricting outcome.
Missouri had filed a brief with the Supreme Court asking the justices to leave the 2025 congressional map used for the primary election in place.
All four federal judges who had considered the redistricting dispute had agreed on the question before the Supreme Court intervened.
The court’s conservative majority drew a clear line, declining to permit lower court judges to second-guess Supreme Court rulings through procedural manoeuvres.
The stay of the district court order marked the second time in a single week that the Supreme Court affirmed that Missouri state law is determined by the Missouri Supreme Court.
Following the ruling, Missouri’s Secretary of State filed a letter with the state supreme court confirming he would comply with Missouri law and use the existing map for the upcoming election.
Secretary of State Hoskins directed election officials to use the 2022 map and wrote to the state supreme court confirming he planned to follow the law going forward.
Hoskins indicated there was therefore no further reason to hold him in contempt for his earlier efforts to circumvent the legal process around redistricting.