A federal appeals court has ordered Missouri to scrap the congressional map it used just weeks ago in its August primary and replace it with a Republican-drawn version designed to flip a Kansas City-area Democratic seat — setting up a second Supreme Court showdown over the state's district lines before Election Day.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that continuing to use Missouri's 2022 congressional map for the November general election, after the 2025 map was used to certify the primary process, would violate the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, according to St. Louis Public Radio's coverage of the ruling. But the panel stayed its own order until Sept. 28, giving opponents a window to seek emergency intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court — which has already rebuffed Missouri Republicans on this same map twice in recent weeks.

The Map That Won't Stay Dead

The fight traces back to September 2025, when the GOP-controlled legislature passed a new map at President Trump's urging, redrawing Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's safely Democratic Kansas City district by splitting it across three rural, Republican-leaning districts. A coalition called People Not Politicians gathered enough signatures to force a referendum on the map, which under Missouri Supreme Court precedent blocked it from taking effect — meaning the older 2022 map governed this summer's Aug. 4 primary.

Now the 8th Circuit says that arrangement itself is the constitutional problem, since Missouri can't lawfully use one map for its primary and a different one for the general election in the same cycle, per U.S. News' reporting.

"THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT PERMIT MISSOURI TO USE A DIFFERENT CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT MAP IN THE NOVEMBER 2026 GENERAL ELECTION THAN IT USED IN THE AUGUST 2026 PRIMARY ELECTION" — 8TH CIRCUIT PANEL

Chuck Hatfield, the attorney representing People Not Politicians, said he expects the Supreme Court to ultimately keep the 2022 map in place simply because of the calendar: military ballots have already been mailed, and county election officials say more than 9,000 absentee ballots were set to go out imminently under the existing lines.

Local election administrators are warning the late-stage map swap could create chaos regardless of who wins. St. Charles County Elections Director Kurt Bahr said that if the 2025 map takes effect now, voters in shifted precincts could see their congressional votes thrown out even as the rest of their ballot counts. The Supreme Court is expected to face pressure to rule before the Sept. 28 stay expires.