On September 8, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen R. Clark, a Trump appointee, ordered Missouri to use the 2025 U.S. House district boundaries. This lawsuit was filed by a Missouri Republican member of Congress on September 4, one day after the Missouri Supreme Court had ruled in favor of the 2022 maps. Onder v State of Missouri, e.d., 4:26cv-1424.
Judge Clark acknowledged that the U.S. Supreme Court had that very same day declined to get involved in the controversy. Judge Clark bases his order on the fact that the primary this year used the 2025 map. He does not acknowledge two instances when in similar situations, U.S. District Courts had enjoined the use of U.S. House maps even after the primary was over (in Georgia in 1982 and Texas in 1996). He quotes the Missouri election code, section 115.339, as saying “All candidates for elective office shall be nominated at a primary election. But just as the state did in its U.S. Supreme Court filings, he doesn’t quote the entire sentence. He omits the preliminary phrase, “Except as otherwise provided by this subchapter”. In Missouri, new parties do not nominate candidates in a primary. Instead new parties nominate by convention.
The Missouri voters who object to the 2025 maps have asked Judge Clark to stay his own ruling. They point out that federal law requires 3-judge U.S. District Courts to adjudicate the constitutionality of U.S. House district maps.