Supreme rejects again Missouri electoral map supported by Trump

Othe magistrates of the highest court of the United States suspended a decision of a federal court of appeal validating the new map, favorable to the republicans, for the November elections, which will define the control of Congress.

Pronouncing for the third time on the issue, the Supreme Court maintained the decision of the Missouri state supreme court, which determined, at the beginning of the month, that a popular petition prevents the use of the new map, unless it is previously approved by voters in a referendum in November.

The decision means that Missouri residents will vote on the basis of the same electoral districts used in the elections of 2022 and 2024.

U.S. legislative circles are generally redesigned only once a decade after censuses to consider population changes, and the ongoing process in several states is unusual, which began in Texas in June 2025, at the request of President Donald Trump, pressed by polls that give almost certain loss of control of the House of Representatives by Republicans in the mid-November.

Eliminating electoral circles won by Democrats or diluting them into larger circles, Republicans extended the effort to several states, predicting that they can win seats in Congress with new maps in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama.

The Democrats responded in the states where they are majority, notably in California and Utah, but they suffered a major setback with the Virginia Supreme's decision that made it impossible to use a map that was favourable to them.

In Missouri, Republicans hoped that the new map – already used in the August primary – could help them gain an additional seat in the lower chamber of Congress, contributing to Trump's claims to gain leverage in mid-term elections.

On Monday, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeal decided that the amendment of circumscriptions between the primary elections and the general elections would violate the Constitution and instructed a district judge to prevent Missouri from using any map other than the new, but postponed the entry into force of the order, to give time for an appeal to the Supreme Federal.

More than a million potential voters in Missouri – almost one in four across the state – have changed their constituency, having different candidates in their ballots.

Correspondence voting began on Tuesday on the basis of the circles of 2022, although some local electoral authorities advised voters to wait because of legal uncertainty.

Currently, Republicans hold six of the eight districts of the House of Representatives in Missouri. At the insistence of Trump and Republican governor Mike Kehoe, Missouri legislators approved, in September, a review of the maps to help them win seven seats in the mid-term elections.

At least 16 lawsuits were filed in state and federal courts regarding the change of electoral districts in Missouri.

The dispute was the longest and most complex between about a dozen states that sought to change the electoral maps to the House of Representatives in the last year, and that has often risen to the Supreme in Washington.

In June, the Supreme Federal allowed Alabama to use in midterm elections a new map that eliminates one of the two black majority districts of the state, tendingly Democrats, thus blocking a lower court decision.

The Supreme Federal also leads Alabama to eliminate before the midterms one of the two predominantly black electoral districts, creating an opportunity for Republicans to win another seat in the House of Representatives.