Missouri’s top election official faces a contempt hearing Thursday after directing county clerks to use a Republican-drawn congressional map that the state’s own Supreme Court had blocked — a defiance triggered by two conflicting federal court rulings that arrived just 28 minutes apart on Tuesday afternoon.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied Missouri Republicans’ emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, leaving in place a state court order barring Secretary of State Denny Hoskins from using the new Republican-drawn map. Twenty-eight minutes later, Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark — acting in a separate federal lawsuit filed by Republican congressional candidates — issued a temporary restraining order barring Missouri from using any map “other than” House Bill 1 for the November 3 general election. Clark found that plaintiffs faced “irreparable harm” because “many Missouri voters would have to cast their general-election votes for candidates whom they had no role in nominating,” given that the August primaries had already been held under the new districts.
Hoskins immediately emailed county election officials directing them to use the gerrymandered map, citing the federal Supremacy Clause. Missouri Supreme Court Chief Judge W. Brent Powell responded within hours, giving Hoskins until 1 p.m. Wednesday to explain why he should not be held in contempt, according to Democracy Docket, a voting-rights organization founded by Democratic lawyer Marc Elias. A contempt hearing was set for Thursday morning.
The dueling orders put local election officials in a bind. “We’ve got the Supreme Court of Missouri saying that we have to use them; otherwise, we’ll be in violation of their order,” Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon told NPR. “And then we have the federal court saying that we can’t use them; otherwise, we’ll be in violation of the federal court.”
People Not Politicians attorney Chuck Hatfield argued the two orders do not actually cancel each other out. “Judge Clark does not say that you must use [the 2025 map], because he can’t overrule the Missouri Supreme Court,” Hatfield told KCUR. “So where we are is the Missouri Supreme Court says ‘you’re enjoined from [the 2025 map]’ and Judge Clark’s TRO says … ‘don’t use anything else either.'” St. Charles County elections director Kurt Bahr said his county would use the new maps for now but raised concerns about the cost of reprinting ballots and voter access during six weeks of absentee voting if the maps changed again, per NPR.
The legal fight centers on Missouri’s 5th Congressional District, a Kansas City-area seat held by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, one of two Democrats in Missouri’s eight-member House delegation, where Republicans hold six seats. Under the Republican-drawn map, portions of Cleaver’s district were reassigned to two neighboring GOP-held districts and its footprint was stretched eastward into rural Republican areas — effectively converting the seat into a likely Republican win.
Missouri’s legislature redrew the map at President Donald Trump’s urging as part of a broader mid-decade redistricting push. Missouri was the second state, after Texas, to act on Trump’s call, which Republicans have pursued across eight states in a bid to pad their narrow House majority. Opponents responded by gathering more than 300,000 signatures — nearly three times the required threshold — to trigger a voter referendum under Missouri’s constitution, which will appear on the November ballot as Proposition A regardless of how the court fights resolve.
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that HB 1 “is not the law and has never been the law” under the state’s referendum power. Redistricting opponents have appealed Clark’s order to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The contempt hearing, the circuit appeal, and Proposition A together will determine whether Missouri voters — or Republican lawmakers — get the final say on the state’s congressional map.