A federal appeals court ordered Missouri to use its 2025 congressional map in November, despite two prior Supreme Court rejections on procedural grounds.
The St. Louis-based Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the order Monday, Fox News reported. The ruling requires election authorities to use the newer districts for the November 2026 general election.
The federal panel reversed a series of Missouri Supreme Court decisions favoring the state’s 2022 map. It also revived the same 2025 map that Missouri used during its August primaries.
That timing has created a serious election problem. County clerks said they lacked enough time to prepare new ballots, while military and overseas voters had already begun receiving theirs.
The appeals court delayed its order for one week. That gives opponents time to seek another review from the U.S. Supreme Court before the ruling takes effect.
The Supreme Court previously rejected the 2025 map twice on procedural grounds, most recently earlier in September. Those procedural actions did not settle the underlying constitutional dispute described by the Eighth Circuit.
Missouri’s Republican-dominated legislature drew the new congressional boundaries in 2025. More than 1.2 million citizens then voted under that map during the August 2026 primary elections.
The new plan divides Missouri’s 5th Congressional District between two districts. The current district covers the Kansas City metropolitan area and was one of Missouri’s two Democratic-leaning congressional seats.
An August state trial court ruling said a return to the 2022 map would move hundreds of thousands of voters into different districts. Those voters would face new general-election boundaries after casting primary ballots under the 2025 plan.
Eighth Circuit Judge Stephen R. Clark stated the federal court’s position in direct terms. In the court decision, Clark wrote:
“This Court holds that Missouri’s current plan to use the 2022 map in the November 2026 general election violates the Constitution. Only use of the 2025 map complies with the Constitution and federal law,”
The appeals panel upheld Clark’s earlier decision. Its order means Missouri must return to the districts used in August unless the Supreme Court intervenes during the one-week delay.
The Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities said it would not use the 2025 map for November. The group argued that election offices lacked enough time to provide new ballots.
Absentee and mail-in ballots were scheduled to go out one day after the federal ruling. Military and overseas voters had already started receiving ballots by that point.
People Not Politicians, which opposed the redrawn map, also pressed officials to stop the litigation. Executive director Richard von Glahn said ballots had been printed and some Missourians had already voted.
His group argued that more voters would cast ballots before the federal order took effect. It called further legal action a waste of taxpayer money and urged officials to focus on running the election.
That argument identifies the practical cost of the court fight, but it does not answer the constitutional holding. The Eighth Circuit ruled that using the older map would violate federal law and the Constitution.
President Donald Trump supported the 2025 boundaries and criticized the Missouri Supreme Court’s effort to restore the older map. In a Sept. 4 Truth Social post, he warned that the election was too close for another change.
Trump also pointed to the August primary, arguing that Missouri should use the map already placed before voters. The Eighth Circuit later reached that same practical outcome through its constitutional ruling.
The case now returns to familiar ground: competing courts, a fast election calendar and local officials responsible for making the final map work. The missing calendar date for Monday’s ruling leaves the exact Supreme Court appeal deadline unclear.
Election rules must rest on law, but courts also owe voters clear answers before ballots start moving. Missouri received an answer late, and taxpayers must now bear the cost of the delay.
