<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/supreme-court/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Supreme Court</a> denied an effort by <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/missouri/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Missouri</a> officials to reinstate a new congressional map for the November election after the Missouri Supreme Court <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4713127/missouri-supreme-court-republican-map-midterm-ballot/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ruled</a> that voters would have to approve the new map via a ballot measure.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the justice assigned to handle emergency petitions from Missouri, denied the emergency application without elaborating on his decision. The order issued late Tuesday means that the Missouri Supreme Court's ruling reinstating the congressional map used during the 2022 and 2024 elections remains in effect, and the new congressional map will be subject to a vote.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Missouri conducted its primary elections in August using the new congressional map, which was designed to provide Republicans with an additional seat in the House of Representatives. However, the ruling indicates that the general election in less than two months will be held under the previous congressional map first used four years ago. Officials in Missouri had been awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling on the emergency petition before determining how to proceed with the House elections in November.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Missouri Solicitor General Louis Capozzi requested the Supreme Court to halt the state high court’s ruling, warning of a potential “federal-election-administration disaster.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“No court in American history has ever given such an extraordinary remedy, which inflicts unprecedented chaos on Missouri,” Capozzi stated. “Looking backwards, the order renders a completed federal Primary Election utterly pointless—disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters who will now be moved into new districts and forced to vote for candidates they had no role in selecting. Looking forwards, the State is genuinely unsure whether it can switch its governing congressional map in time to run a timely federal election.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In Missouri, citizens may gather signatures to place a passed piece of legislation on the ballot for a referendum, but the law’s enactment is suspended until the vote is held. The validity of the signatures gathered for the petition to place the law on the ballot had been the subject of intense litigation, with the Missouri Supreme Court ruling that the law should be placed for a vote and that the new congressional map may not be used unless it passes the referendum.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong><a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/supreme-court/4715007/missouri-supreme-court-overturn-block-congress-map/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MISSOURI ASKS SUPREME COURT TO OVERTURN BLOCK OF NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP BEFORE ELECTION</a></strong></p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court last week addressed state constitutional matters, which are disputes that the U.S. Supreme Court typically does not intervene in.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Earlier this year, Democrats in Virginia unsuccessfully attempted to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate a congressional map that would have allowed them to gain multiple seats in the House, after the Virginia Supreme Court determined that the referendum approving the map was unlawful.</p>