MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Supreme Court appeal Missouri officials promised is now filed. Late on the night of September 4, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and Attorney General Catherine Hanaway submitted an emergency application to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles applications from the Eighth Circuit, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the Missouri Supreme Court''s ruling that voided the state''s 2025 congressional map, per St. Louis Public Radio.
That ruling, issued September 3, held that a citizen referendum certified in December suspended the map before it ever took effect, putting the question to voters on November 3 as Proposition A and reverting the election to the 2022 through 2024 lines, per CNN.
The state asked for a decision by September 14, citing the September 19 federal deadline for mailing military and overseas ballots and a September 8 state deadline for finalizing district maps, and argued the ruling violates federal law in several serious respects. Justice Kavanaugh directed Richard von Glahn, executive director of referendum sponsor People Not Politicians, to respond by noon on Monday, September 7. County election clerks disputed the state''s claim that switching back to the old lines is logistically impossible, per St. Louis Public Radio.
Why It Matters for Memphis
Tennessee passed its own mid-decade map in May 2026, carving Shelby County''s Democratic-held seat, and Tennessee''s constitution gives voters no referendum to answer it. What the Supreme Court does with Missouri''s application will signal how far the emergency docket will reach into a state court''s reading of its own constitution, the only kind of ruling a Tennessee challenge could ever win.
The Oversight Question
Missouri''s highest court said the state constitution suspended the map. The state''s answer is a federal emergency application filed at midnight. If nine justices can restore a map a state''s own constitution suspended, what is left of the referendum power Missouri voters used?
Your city. Your money. Your receipts.
Update, October 11, 2026: Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied Missouri's emergency application on September 8, 2026, without referring it to the full Court, SCOTUSblog reported. Shortly after, Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark ordered the state to use the 2025 map anyway. The full Supreme Court paused Judge Clark's order on September 10, and on September 25, after the Eighth Circuit had sided with Judge Clark on September 21, the Court issued an unsigned order with no noted dissents in People Not Politicians v. Onder, No. 26A388, directing that the 2022 map govern the 2026 congressional election.
The 901 Report's follow-ups: Missouri's Emergency Map Appeal Is Over. Justice Kavanaugh Said No. and "The Supreme Court Ends Missouri's Mid-Cycle Map Fight: 2022 Lines in November."
