US supreme court blocks Missouri’s new congressional map backed by Trump

Federal judge says old maps cannot be used in November election, hours after supreme court blocked redrawn maps

A federal judge in Missouri on Tuesday temporarily prevented the state from using its old congressional maps in the November midterm elections, hours after the supreme court declined to intervene, the latest twist in a legal back-and-forth playing out less than two months before the midterms.

On Tuesday the conservative justice Brett Kavanaugh denied the emergency request from Missouri officials to use a congressional map in November that was redrawn with Donald Trump’s support to give Republicans an edge in the midterm elections. The supreme court action came after the Missouri supreme court ruled that the map must go before voters to approve or reject the new districts, meaning it cannot be used in the November election.

The president and Republicans fumed over the decision, with the president calling it “horrible, ridiculous, and unConstitutional”.

Catherine Hanaway, the state’s Republican attorney general, had immediately pledged to appeal to the supreme court.

The decision marks a rare setback for Trump and Republicans, who set in motion a national redistricting battle last year.

Missouri was the second Republican state to act in response to the president’s push to redraw congressional maps to favor Republicans.

Mike Kehoe, the state’s governor, called the legislature into a special session last year to create new boundaries ahead of the US midterm elections.

The revised map targeted the fifth congressional district, held by longtime Democratic representative Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City. It reassigned portions of Kansas City to two neighboring districts represented by Republicans and stretched the remainder of Cleaver’s district far eastward into rural Republican areas.

Cleaver was unopposed in the Democratic primary. State senator Rick Brattin won the Republican primary in the reshaped district.

The state utilized the new map in its primary elections in August.

But last week the state supreme court, which includes five Republican-appointed judges, ‌unanimously ruled voters must approve the map in November before it can be utilized. The state’s attorney general argued the decision thrust Missouri into a “full‑fledged constitutional crisis”.