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.…

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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…

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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…

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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.…

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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…

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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…

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Maryland Officials Announce Special Session on Redistricting in August

By EditorJul 11, 2026

On Wednesday, July 8, House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk and Senate President Bill Ferguson jointly announced that the Maryland General Assembly will convene for a special session August 3rd through 5th to consider placing a constitutional amendment regarding congressional redistricting on the November ballot. This marks a significant reversal for Ferguson, who earlier this year refused to allow a Senate vote on the House-passed redistricting map that would have eliminated the state's sole Republican-held congressional seat. Ferguson said this time the approach is different: "After recent court decisions weakened the federal Voting Rights Act and created new uncertainty around congressional redistricting,…

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Colorado Is Out of the Redistricting Fight After Supreme Court Strikes Down All Ballot Measures

By EditorJun 30, 2026

The Colorado Supreme Court on June 29 unanimously struck down all five redistricting-related ballot initiatives that had been approved for signature gathering, ruling that each violated the state constitution's single-subject requirement. The single-subject rule, codified in Article V, Section 1(5.5) of the Colorado Constitution, provides that "no measure shall be proposed by petition containing more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title," and that if a measure contains more than one subject such that a ballot title cannot be fixed to clearly express a single subject, "no title shall be set and the measure shall not…

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Georgia Republican Leaders Say No to Redistricting. For Now

By EditorJun 25, 2026

Georgia's Republican legislative leaders rejected Gov. Brian Kemp's call to redraw the state's congressional and state legislative district maps during a special session that convened on June 17, citing pending litigation and the need for more time to evaluate the legal landscape after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais. House Speaker Jon Burns sent Kemp a letter hours before the session was scheduled to begin, writing that "changes to Georgia's maps should take place only when members of the General Assembly and citizens have been given ample opportunity to gather the facts, provide input, and engage in…

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Florida Supreme Court Declines to Intervene, Locking in Mid-Decade Map for 2026

By EditorJun 14, 2026

The Florida Supreme Court ruled 6-1 on Wednesday, June 10, that it lacks jurisdiction to intervene while the redistricting lawsuit is still pending before the First District Court of Appeal, and declined to use its "all writs" power to grant a temporary injunction against using the mid-decade congressional map that the Florida legislature passed in April that could shift the state’s delegation from a 20–8 Republican advantage to a potential 24–4 split. The ruling came after plaintiffs, the Equal Ground Education Fund, represented by the Elias Law Group, had filed a motion on May 28 to bypass the First District Court…

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