Supreme Court deals another blow to GOP hopes of capturing extra congressional seat

(CNN) — The Supreme Court sided with opponents of a Republican-friendly congressional map in Missouri on Thursday, rejecting a plan that could have given the GOP an extra seat in the House of Representatives.

The order, issued without explanation and no noted dissent, will almost certainly mean the state will use a previous map that included six — rather than seven — winnable seats for the GOP.

The one-paragraph decision will affect only a single seat, however, it is an unusual election-related loss for Republicans at the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court. And it undercuts President Donald Trump’s effort to eke an advantage out of state congressional maps across the country to retain Republican control of the House next year.

“The law is the law, the Missouri constitution is clear as was the Missouri Supreme Court,” said Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri, the group that challenged the map and filed the emergency appeal at the Supreme Court. “Over 305,000 Missouri voters — Republicans, Democrats and independents — took action to block this political power grab last fall.”

Aides to Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, a Republican, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Even without the seat they sought to gain in Missouri, Republicans have still drawn nine more seats in their favor than Democrats have, according to a CNN analysis. That could be a bulwark for the GOP as it tries to hold onto House control facing major headwinds in Trump’s unpopularity and national concerns about the economy and cost of living.

That doesn’t mean the GOP will gain nine seats this fall due to redistricting. Democrats believe they can still hold onto several of the seats drawn to Republican advantage, particularly in districts with significant Latino populations that shifted to the right during Trump’s 2024 victory but have shown signs of moving back toward the left.

People Not Politicians, organized a campaign to put the new GOP-friendly map to a referendum after the state legislature approved the map last year. Missouri’s highest court had backed that effort last week, effectively requiring the state to revert to an earlier map. And when state officials appealed that ruling to the US Supreme Court last week, Justice Brett Kavanaugh declined to review it.

That decision, it turned out, wasn’t the end of the dispute. Minutes after Kavanaugh issued a brief one-sentence order, a federal judge in Missouri reviewing a different case handed down a temporary order that effectively pushed state officials back to the map that advantaged the GOP. Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican, said the state would proceed with the GOP map.

People Not Politicians filed a flurry of appeals seeking to pause that order from US District Judge Stephen Clark, a Trump nominee. And on Wednesday evening, the case returned to the US Supreme Court.

But the high court’s quick resolution of the case — without any substantial writing or dissent — suggests that for all the drama and confusion around the litigation, Missouri never stood much of a chance. It’s not clear why the Supreme Court sided with People Not Politicians, but critics noted that much of the dispute around the second map involved questions of state and not federal law.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority — and Kavanaugh, in particular — have frequently also cited a legal doctrine known as the “Purcell principle” that warns federal courts against ruling in election cases that could change the status quo right before an election.

Earlier Thursday, the Trump Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to side with the Missouri Republicans, arguing that the group organizing opposition to the GOP-friendly map lacks the right to sue, known as standing, because it had not demonstrated how it would be harmed by the map. And it backed an argument raised by a Republican congressman in the state that switching maps between the primary and general elections raises equal protection concerns.

“The Constitution guarantees an equal right to vote for one’s own representatives,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the administration’s top appellate attorney, told the Supreme Court on Thursday morning. “Switching maps at this stage would violate that guarantee: Some voters will have had the opportunity to vote in primaries for the members of Congress who will represent them, while others will not.”

The map targeted the 5th Congressional District, held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, by breaking up its Kansas City base and stretching it into rural and Republican-leaning parts of the state.

Opponents of the map had submitted their petition for a referendum late last year, but state officials waited until August 4, the last possible date, which happened to be the day of the state’s primary, to declare that the state constitution’s right for voters to weigh in on legislation doesn’t apply to redistricting measures. The state supreme court rejected that interpretation.

Opponents of the map had submitted their petition for a referendum late last year, but state officials waited until August 4, the last possible date, which happened to be the day of the state’s primary, to declare that the state constitution’s right for voters to weigh in on legislation doesn’t apply to redistricting measures. The state supreme court rejected that interpretation.

Hoskins’ handling of the legal fallout prompted the state supreme sourt to hold contempt proceedings about his conduct Thursday. After his lawyer faced a round of tough questioning from the justices, Hoskins committed to working with election officials to implement the 2022 redistricting plan.

The Missouri Supreme Court concluded that Hoskins acted in contempt of court when he told local officials earlier in the week to move forward with the GOP-friendly map, but that he had wiped away that finding by changing gears on Thursday.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed, Nomaan Merchant and Fredreka Schouten contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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