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?
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