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The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday drove a stake through the heart of Missouri’s undead congressional map, ordering it be buried for the year and for voters to cast ballots in the districts they’ve used the past two election cycles.

In a unanimous decision, the court said that state law rules in the case.

“In short, as a matter of state law, the 2022 map — not the 2025 map — must be used in the 2026 congressional election,” states the ruling, which is unsigned.

The decision ends, for this election at least, Republicans’ effort to use a gerrymandered map to improve their chances of winning a seventh Missouri seat in the U.S. House.

It also caps three weeks of dramatic court action that changed the map in place for November five times, tested the jurisdiction and overlap of state and federal courts and exasperated local election officials responsible for conducting the vote.

Missouri Supreme Court Blocks GOP Maps, Puts Gerrymandering Issue to Voters

In the final brief filed on behalf of Secretary of State Denny Hoskins before the ruling, state Solicitor General Lou Capozzi said it was already too late to prevent chaos in this year’s election.

“(T)he honest truth is that — regardless of what this court does — Missouri will not be able to run an orderly 2026 general election,” Capozzi wrote. “If required to use the 2025 map, Missouri can maintain the status quo that governed for about a year and will avoid disenfranchising individuals who voted in the primary election; but Missouri will undoubtedly violate (the federal law) deadline for sending ballots to military and overseas voters.”

The gerrymandered map drawn last year by the legislature targeted U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City by stretching the 5th District deep into Republican strongholds in rural counties along the Missouri River. Under the boundaries drawn in 2022, Cleaver won with 60% of the vote in each of the past two elections.

Using the 2022 map means voters in 28 counties will be in different districts in November than they were in the Aug. 4 primary. The changes impact the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th districts in addition to reversal of the gerrymander in the 5th District.

In a fundraising appeal sent jointly with 1st District U.S. Rep. Wesley Bell of St. Louis on Friday morning, Cleaver said it was “a never-ending case of ‘Groundhog Day’.”

The decision found that the courts Sept. 10 order directing the use of the 2022 map had been misunderstood by both the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. Chief District Judge Stephen Clark when orders to use the 2025 map were issued.

The order of Sept. 10 “meant that the 2022 map would be used in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri, absent further order of this court,” the opinion states.

The election would be thrown into turmoil if the 2025 map was used, the court stated.

“At this late date, ordering reversion to the 2025 map in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos,” the court stated, citing the brief filed by county clerks and election authorities with the 8th Circuit.

The decision means election officials, who began accepting absentee ballots........

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