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Supreme Court rejects Missouri map that would give Republicans an extra House seat
September 26, 2026
A Friday ruling by the Supreme Court keeps a district plan favored by Missouri Republicans out of this fall's House races, handing the plan's opponents another win.
Missouri's 2025 congressional map, backed by Republicans and Trump, aimed to give the GOP an extra House seat and was used in the state's August 4 primaries.
Key facts
- Earlier in September, the Missouri Supreme Court held that the ballot measure kept the Republican-drawn 2025 map from ever taking effect or becoming law, despite its use in the August 4 primaries.
- The ruling by the appeals court in effect sent the state back to the 7-1 Republican district plan.
- NPR reports that the Supreme Court stopped a Missouri House district plan that Trump supported, a setback for Republicans hoping to gain ground in the midterm contest over which party holds the House.
- With midterm ballots already being cast and the nation paying attention, the Supreme Court halted a Missouri district plan designed to add a Republican seat to the U.S. House.
CNN reports that the justices turned back a bid on Friday to run Missouri's November House races under a Republican-backed district plan, the third time they have sided with its opponents. NPR reports the map aimed to net Republicans another seat in the US House and calls the ruling a defeat for a party seeking an edge in the fight for control of the chamber. The headlines at AP News and The New York Times both describe the court turning the map away once more, and Politico's headline casts the plan as a GOP gerrymander. USA Today carries the same account of the ruling.
ABC News reports the opinion's central reasoning: "At this late date, ordering reversion to the 2025 map in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos." NPR reports that, in a ruling earlier this month, the Missouri Supreme Court found that a ballot question meant the 2025 map never took effect, even though the state used it in the August 4 primaries. CNN likens the back-and-forth to last year's controversy, in which Justice Neil Gorsuch rebuked lower courts that kept ruling against Trump after the Supreme Court had weighed in on its emergency docket.
One account quotes the Supreme Court telling the lower courts not to block the 2022 map and not to require the 2025 map in the 2026 election; another account departs from that version of the order. What holds across every outlet is the outcome: the Republican-backed map will not be used in the November election. The exact terms of the order to the lower courts are still open.
The opinion said, "At this late date, ordering reversion to the 2025 map in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos."
the opinion
Still developing
The open question is the court order to the lower courts on the Missouri map, where the figures do not line up between the accounts.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos — Supreme Court shuts down Missouri redistricting saga in final rebuff to GOP
- CBS News — Supreme Court again blocks Missouri's new congressional map drawn to give Republicans an edge - CBS News
- CNN — Supreme Court rejects GOP’s third effort to capture Democratic House seat in Missouri
- NPR — Supreme Court blocks Trump-backed Missouri congressional map
- USA Today — Supreme Court once again blocks Trump-backed House map in Missouri - USA Today
- AP News — Supreme Court rejects a Trump-backed Missouri congressional map for the third time - AP News
- Politico — Supreme Court again snubs GOP gerrymander in Missouri
Toggle read the full reports of 5 of the 8 outlets counted on this event. The other 3 are counted from their headlines and opening sentences.