The Supreme Court on Thursday once again prevented Missouri from using a congressional map in November that was redrawn to give Republicans an advantage in the midterm elections.
It was the second time this week that the Supreme Court waded into a dizzying legal fight over Missouri’s congressional map, and it came just two months before a general election that could determine control of the House.
The court’s brief order did not include any reasoning, as is often the case when the justices respond to emergency requests. There were no noted dissents.
Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh had taken a similar action on Tuesday evening, as Missouri Democrats briefly appeared to have prevailed in a yearlong fight to preserve a House seat they hold in the Kansas City area. In that order, he deferred to Missouri’s Supreme Court, which had determined state officials should not have adopted the new map without a voter referendum. The state court ruling came even though Missouri voters already used the new map to nominate candidates in last month’s primary contests.
Instead, the state court said Missouri should use a map that had been in place since 2022 for the upcoming election.
But minutes after the justice’s order landed, Stephen R. Clark, the chief federal judge in St. Louis, ruled in the opposite direction, ordering the state to use the map that Missouri Republicans drew last year at President Trump’s request. That map was intended to help Republicans flip the seat in Kansas City.
Judge Clark’s ruling came in a different legal case, brought by a Republican congressman who is running for re-election and a G.O.P. candidate who won the primary under the new district lines. That ruling was then appealed again to the Supreme Court, resulting in Thursday’s action.
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