Justice Kavanaugh today denied the Missouri secretary of state’s application for a stay of a state supreme court ruling that ordered the state to use its 2022 congressional map (and not its 2025 newly gerrymandered map) in the upcoming midterm elections.
The upshot is that Missouri cannot use its 2025 newly gerrymandered map, which was designed to net Republicans one House seat in the state. Instead, it has to use its earlier 2022 map.
The case started on September 12, 2025, when the state legislature enacted a new, aggressively gerrymandered map, “HB1,” as part of the mid-census redistricting wave set off by red states. Opponents of the measure quickly submitted a referendum petition to override HB1 to the secretary of state, who approved it for circulation. On December 9, two days before HB1 was set to take effect, organizers submitted over 300,000 signatures in opposition to HB1. Under state law, the secretary then had to determine whether the submission complied with state law and to issue a certificate of sufficiency or insufficiency by August 4, 2026.
At 4:00 p.m. on August 4, just before the deadline and the same day the state used HB1 in the primaries, the secretary issued a certificate of insufficiency on the ground that “the Missouri Constitution does not authorize a referendum on congressional redistricting plans passed by the General Assembly.”
One of the referendum’s supporters, Richard von Glahn, immediately sued, seeking reversal of the secretary’s certification decision and an injunction preventing the secretary from using HB1.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled for von Glahn. The court held that under the Missouri Constitution HB1 was never the law. According to the court, that’s because von Glahn filed a legal, sufficient, and timely referendum petition before HB1 was set to take effect. In such a circumstance, the state constitution provides that HB1 would not become law unless and until voters approved it.
The state high court then ordered the state to use the earlier, 2022 congressional map in the upcoming midterm elections and to put the referendum on HB1 on the ballot.
The secretary of state, through the state attorney general, sought a stay at the Supreme Court. They argued that the state had already used HB1 in the primaries, and that using the earlier map in the general election would violate the Elections Clause and deprive some voters of their right to vote.
Justice Kavanaugh rejected their application. Notably, he rejected it without explanation and without referring it to the entire Court.