<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A federal appeals court panel weighed on Thursday whether to keep alive Missouri’s attempt to reinstate a new congressional map that would net Republicans a House seat, potentially sending the legal matter to the Supreme Court for a third time.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The legal battle over which congressional map Missouri will use for the November election intensified late last month, when the Missouri Supreme Court ordered that a new map, passed in 2025 and favoring Republicans over Democrats, would have to face a referendum while the old map, passed in 2022, would be used for the November election. Missouri officials unsuccessfully tried to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court and simultaneously filed a lawsuit in federal court attempting to reinstate the 2025 map for the upcoming elections. While a federal district court ruled in favor of reinstating the 2025 map, the Supreme Court halted that ruling pending appeal, reinstating the 2022 map for now — even though the state conducted primary elections in August using the 2025 map.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit heard arguments in the appeal of the district court’s ruling reinstating the 2025 map, questioning lawyers for People Not Politicians, the group trying to intervene and force the state to use the 2022 map for the upcoming elections, on whether they have standing to appeal.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“If the intervenor’s not here, who’s going to defend Missouri law?” Charles Hatfield, a lawyer for the group, told the panel, arguing that there was no objection to the group intervening in district court because “no one is willing to defend the unanimous decision of the Missouri Supreme Court and the state law.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The panel appeared skeptical of Hatfield’s arguments for standing, but it also questioned Missouri officials over the timetable to issue a ruling as key election deadlines approach in the coming days. Louis Capozzi, a lawyer for Missouri officials, told the panel that it should intervene and halt the ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court. Capozzi added that it is “hard to imagine a greater destruction of state legislative authority” than allowing a map passed by the state legislature to be wiped away by a petition to place it on the referendum ballot.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“If this maneuver stands, and it will unless the federal courts intervene, we will have redistricting paralysis in Missouri, and every time the state tries to redistrict, at a minimum, 3.3% of voters can force the use of their preferred map for at least two years,” Capozzi said. “That’s not democracy.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The three-judge panel that heard arguments in the case included U.S. Circuit Judges James Loken, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush; David Stras, an appointee of President Donald Trump; and Justin Smith, also a Trump appointee.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The 8th Circuit panel said it would move quickly to issue a ruling but did not indicate how it would rule on the matter. The eventual decision by the panel could be appealed to the Supreme Court. The justices have twice moved to keep the 2022 map in place for the November elections, despite the state’s primary elections in August being conducted with the 2025 map.</p>