Updated: Dueling Orders Leave Missouri’s Congressional Map Unresolved

Updated: Dueling Orders Leave Missouri’s Congressional Map Unresolved

By EditorSep 09, 20260 Comments
Two federal decisions landed within minutes of each other on September 8, pointing in opposite directions. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, acting alone and without explanation, rejected Missouri Republican officials' emergency application to stay the Missouri Supreme Court's September 3 ruling, leaving the 2022 map in place for November. Moments later, Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark of the Eastern District of Missouri issued a 14-day temporary restraining order barring Secretary of State Denny Hoskins from using any map other than the one drawn in the 2025 special session, ruling in a suit filed September 4 by U.S. Rep.…
Missouri, , , ,
Read More
Maryland Supreme Court Sends Redistricting Amendment to Voters, With Rewritten Language

Maryland Supreme Court Sends Redistricting Amendment to Voters, With Rewritten Language

By EditorSep 07, 20260 Comments
The Supreme Court of Maryland ruled on September 3 that a proposed constitutional amendment on congressional redistricting will appear on the November ballot, reversing two circuit courts that had blocked it. The amendment would supersede a 2022 circuit court ruling by Judge Lynne Battaglia that applied the Maryland Constitution's compactness and contiguity requirements to congressional districts for the first time, standards previously understood to govern only state legislative districts. Senate President Bill Ferguson cited that ruling when he declined to have a Senate vote on a House-passed congressional map in February. The amendment (HB 2100) is intended to remove the…
Maryland, State Laws, , ,
Read More
Galveston County, TX – A County Commission Map Fight With National Consequences

Galveston County, TX – A County Commission Map Fight With National Consequences

By EditorSep 07, 20260 Comments
The litigation over Galveston County's precinct maps - the term Texas law uses for county commissioner, justice of the peace, and constable districts - is closely watched for its implications for voting rights law, in particular the viability of minority coalition claims under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The lead case is Petteway v. Galveston County, which includes claims of intentional discrimination and racial gerrymandering under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments that remain pending in federal court, and a separate dispute over district/precinct boundaries the county adopted in June 2026 is proceeding in state court. A summary of…
FEATURES, Texas, , , ,
Read More
Missouri Supreme Court Blocks 2025 Congressional Map, Orders Referendum

Missouri Supreme Court Blocks 2025 Congressional Map, Orders Referendum

By EditorSep 05, 20260 Comments
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled unanimously on September 3 that the state's 2025 congressional map cannot be used in the November election and that voters must approve it by referendum. Writing for the court, Judge Ginger Gooch held that the Missouri Constitution's provision authorizing a referendum on "any act of the general assembly" contains no exception for redistricting because the plain language of the Missouri Constitution authorizes a referendum for any act of the general assembly, and no existing exception applies. The decision reverses Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green, who had ruled in August that the federal Elections Clause…
Case Updates, Missouri, , ,
Read More
Missouri Judge Blocks Redistricting Referendum From November Ballot. Appeal Filed

Missouri Judge Blocks Redistricting Referendum From November Ballot. Appeal Filed

By EditorAug 21, 20260 Comments
A Missouri judge has ruled that the state's congressional map cannot be put to a referendum vote. On August 19, Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green upheld Secretary of State Denny Hoskins' refusal to place the referendum on the November ballot, found Hoskins' decision lawful, and ordered that the 2025 map "remain in full force and effect for the 2026 general election." Gov. Mike Kehoe signed the map into law on September 28, 2025, after calling the Republican-led General Assembly into a special session in response to President Trump's request that GOP-controlled states redraw their congressional boundaries before the midterms.…
Redistricting, , , , ,
Read More
Galveston County, TX: A Local Redistricting Case With National Reach

Galveston County, TX: A Local Redistricting Case With National Reach

By EditorAug 21, 20260 Comments
The litigation over Galveston County's precinct maps - the term Texas law uses for county commissioner, justice of the peace, and constable districts - is closely watched for its implications for voting rights law, in particular the viability of minority coalition claims under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In addition, claims of intentional discrimination and racial gerrymandering under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments remain pending in federal court, and separate litigation over a new map the county adopted in June 2026 is proceeding in state court. A summary of the litigation thus far is below. Galveston County voters…
Texas, , , ,
Read More
Draft Census Rule Would Affect Apportionment and Block-Level Race Data

Draft Census Rule Would Affect Apportionment and Block-Level Race Data

By EditorAug 16, 20260 Comments
A draft federal rule circulating within the Trump administration would change both who the census counts for congressional apportionment and what the census is permitted to ask. The document proposes two independent regulations: one narrowing the definition of "usual residence" so that foreign citizens other than lawful permanent residents, approved asylees, and approved refugees would not be counted for apportionment, and one barring questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation from the census questionnaire. It is important to note that the draft is marked predecisional, and does not purport to be final. The rule has not been published in the…
Census Law, DATA and TECHNOLOGY, , , , , ,
Read More
Missouri Secretary of State Rejects Redistricting Referendum on Constitutional Grounds

Missouri Secretary of State Rejects Redistricting Referendum on Constitutional Grounds

By EditorAug 06, 2026
The referendum fight that loomed over Missouri's congressional map for months came to a head on August 4, 2026, when Secretary of State Denny Hoskins declined to certify the referendum petition, declaring it unconstitutional a few hours before polls closed in the state's primary election. Hoskins refused to tell reporters whether the petition contained enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot, saying the count was irrelevant because the Missouri Constitution does not permit a referendum on redistricting. "Whether they had one signature or 500 million signatures doesn't really matter because they are unconstitutional," Hoskins said, noting that the…
Missouri, , , ,
Read More
Federal Court Panel Clears Tennessee Congressional Map for the 2026 Primaries

Federal Court Panel Clears Tennessee Congressional Map for the 2026 Primaries

By EditorJul 26, 2026
A three-judge federal panel denied the ACLU's request for a preliminary injunction in Sherman v. Hargett, allowing Tennessee's redrawn map, which splits majority-Black Memphis into three districts, to be used in the August 6 primary. The panel, composed of two Trump-appointed judges and one Obama appointee, concluded the evidence pointed to partisan politics rather than race as the driving force, writing that plaintiffs "haven't presented meaningful evidence that race, not politics, motivated Tennessee's May 2026 map." The per curiam opinion also cited the Purcell principle, stating "the public is better served by a map created by its elected representatives, not…
Tennessee, ,
Read More
The 2030 LUCA Schedule: Key Dates for Tribal, State, and Local Governments

The 2030 LUCA Schedule: Key Dates for Tribal, State, and Local Governments

By EditorJul 21, 2026
The Census Bureau has published a schedule for the 2030 Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA), the process by which tribal, state, and local governments review and comment on the Census Address List for their jurisdictions before the 2030 Census. The Bureau relies on a complete and accurate address list to reach every living quarter and its associated population for inclusion in the decennial census, and LUCA is the mechanism that brings local review into that list. A review begins with a government comparing the Census Bureau's Address Count Listing File for its area (also called a block count list),…
Census Data and Geography, Local Redistricting, ,
Read More