Missouri AG, RNC Fight In Federal Court Over Struck-Down Congressional Map
Following a unanimous state Supreme Court decision striking down Missouri’s 2025 congressional redistricting map, state officials and Republican attorneys have taken the battle to federal court.
Late Friday, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, and Republican National Committee attorney Marc Ellinger filed legal actions asking federal judges to intervene. The filings came directly after a 7-0 ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court, which held that the 2025 redistricting plan “is not the law and has never been the law in Missouri.”
In that ruling, the state’s high court affirmed that “there is only one valid congressional redistricting in effect — the congressional redistricting the General Assembly established in 2022.” The decision cleared the way for a citizen referendum on the map to proceed toward the November ballot.
Advocacy groups that organized the referendum push immediately pushed back against the state’s move to seek federal relief.
“Anyone with a basic understanding of civics knows the legislature, which in Missouri includes the people via the referendum, is who makes law, not the judiciary. The Attorney General is asking the Supreme Court of the United States to create a law that has never been the law in Missouri,” said Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians Missouri. “It is an absurd request for a complete undoing of how laws are created. I am appalled that our Attorney General would seek to strip Missouri voters of their lawmaking authority in such a brazen power grab.”
Alongside the state’s direct appeal, a second lawsuit was filed in federal court involving the same circle of legal representatives. Ellinger, who previously partnered with Hoskins and Hanaway to defend the 2025 map before the state Supreme Court, filed a separate federal complaint on behalf of State Senator Rick Brattin and Congressman Bob Onder, naming Hoskins as a defendant.
Von Glahn strongly criticized the strategy behind the parallel filings.
“This is a clear act of collusion by political allies who have repeatedly praised one another as they attempted to illegally implement their power grab,” von Glahn said. “The Eastern District should reject this charade and scold their petitioners for their attempted manipulation of the judicial system for a political goal.”
The two federal challenges represent the latest legal effort by state officials and lawmakers to secure the 2025 boundaries before the upcoming elections, while opponents maintain that the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling leaves only the 2022 map in effect.