A federal judge in Missouri issued a temporary restraining order requiring the state to use its Republican-friendly congressional map for the midterms, minutes after the Supreme Court refused to intervene, setting up a constitutional standoff between state and federal courts.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark, a Trump appointee serving as chief judge of the Eastern District of Missouri, handed down the 14-day order on Tuesday. The ruling directs state officials to keep using the congressional map the legislature approved and Gov. Mike Kehoe signed into law, even after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the map could not be used in November. Clark found that switching maps just weeks before Election Day would cause serious harm to voters and candidates who already relied on the current district lines.
The order landed minutes after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles emergency matters from Missouri, declined without explanation to take up a separate appeal from state GOP officials asking the high court to overrule the state Supreme Court. That left Missouri caught between two contradictory judicial commands: a state court saying the new map is invalid, and a federal court saying the state must use it anyway.
In his ruling, Clark wrote that reversing the map now would destabilize the entire election cycle:
"Using a different map for the general election would wreak havoc on the fairness and orderliness of Missouri's congressional elections, calling into question the candidacy of those nominated in the primaries and the votes of those who voted in the primaries."
Rep. Bob Onder, the Missouri Republican who filed the federal lawsuit alongside co-plaintiff Rick Brattin, told the New York Post he was confident the ruling would hold. Onder argued that a temporary restraining order signals the judge believes the plaintiffs are likely to win on the merits.
"A temporary restraining order means that Judge Clark has decided that when the case goes forward in his court, he believes that the plaintiffs, Rick Brattin and I, would prevail on the merits. So, needless to say, I'm very confident that if there were a full hearing and adjudication in Judge Clark's court, that we'd be likely to prevail."
Onder framed the dispute in blunt terms, saying the Missouri Supreme Court "got it egregiously wrong" and that Clark "stood for the rule of law and the Constitution."
The practical stakes are hard to overstate. Onder pointed out that roughly 1.2 million Missourians had already voted in primary elections conducted under the new congressional boundaries. Forcing a map switch two months before the general election, he argued, would create a "constitutional crisis" and an "absurd situation", candidates nominated under one set of lines would suddenly represent different districts, and voters who chose those candidates would find their choices scrambled.
The Missouri Supreme Court had ruled the previous week that the new map could not be used in November, holding that it had never been legally enacted and could only take effect through a vote of the people under the state constitution. The ruling came from a legal challenge brought by People Not Politicians Missouri, a group that had pushed for a statewide referendum on the redistricting plan.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway moved quickly after Clark's order. In a written statement, she said the state would comply with the federal ruling:
"We maintain that changing the congressional map in between the primary and general elections is simply not feasible and profoundly unjust to Missouri voters."
Hanaway also posted on X that the state was "prepared to follow and comply with Chief Judge Clark's order that binds the state to using the Missouri FIRST map for the November General Election." Gov. Kehoe echoed that position, writing on X that "the Missouri First Map will be used in the general election" and that "voters and candidates deserve consistency, certainty, and not to have the rules changed between elections." Kehoe noted that Tuesday marked the deadline for changes to the November ballot.
People Not Politicians Missouri did not accept the ruling quietly. Richard von Glahn, the group's executive director, issued a statement arguing that the federal district court had no authority to override the state Supreme Court. Von Glahn noted that the Missouri Supreme Court's decision was unanimous and that Kavanaugh's refusal to intervene left that ruling legally in effect.
"The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously held that [the new map] is not and has not been legally enacted and will only be legally enacted by the vote of the people of Missouri per our Constitution. That ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, the only jurisdiction that can overturn."
Von Glahn accused the attorney general and secretary of state of defying the state court by instructing election clerks to use the contested map. He announced plans to file an appeal and request a stay in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals and with Justice Kavanaugh directly.
Attorney Chuck Hatfield, representing People Not Politicians, put the jurisdictional objection plainly: "An individual federal judge cannot overrule the Missouri Supreme Court."
The map at the center of the fight was drawn during a special legislative session at the urging of President Trump. Missouri's congressional delegation had been split 6-2 in favor of Republicans. The new boundaries reshaped the 5th Congressional District, held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver in the Kansas City area, by reassigning portions of Kansas City to Republican-held districts and stretching the remainder into rural Republican territory. The redesign changed roughly 59 percent of the district's voters, potentially expanding the GOP delegation from 6-2 to 7-1.
Missouri was the second Republican-led state after Texas to redraw congressional lines at Trump's direction. Republicans nationally have hoped to gain as many as 16 additional House seats from new maps across eight states, a strategy that has drawn legal challenges in multiple jurisdictions.
The escalation to the Supreme Court came after state officials exhausted their options in Missouri courts. When Kavanaugh declined the emergency appeal without explanation and without referring it to the full court, the path forward shifted entirely to the federal district court, and now to the 8th Circuit.
The result is a genuine jurisdictional collision. The Missouri Supreme Court says the map is invalid. A federal district judge says the state must use it. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to weigh in. And the 8th Circuit has not yet acted.
For state election officials, the practical question was resolved, at least temporarily, by the governor's announcement that the ballot deadline had passed and the new map would stand. But the legal question remains wide open. Clark's restraining order lasts only 14 days. If the 8th Circuit grants a stay or reverses the order before November, Missouri could face exactly the kind of mid-cycle map switch that both sides claim to oppose.
Redistricting fights have become a recurring feature of the midterm landscape, with courts in multiple states sorting out which maps voters will actually use on Election Day. Missouri's standoff stands out because both sides can point to a court order backing their position, a situation that practically guarantees further appeals.
Onder told the Post he believes the 2025 map will survive. "I think the 2025 map that was legally passed by the Missouri General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Kehoe will be the map we'll be using in November," he said.
Similar battles have played out in Maryland and elsewhere, where courts have blocked redistricting referendums and challenged maps drawn by both parties. The common thread is timing: when courts intervene weeks before an election, voters and candidates bear the cost of the uncertainty.
Missouri's 1.2 million primary voters did not cast their ballots expecting a judge to redraw the playing field after the fact. If the courts cannot sort this out, those voters, not the lawyers, not the activists, not the politicians, are the ones left holding the bag.
