A lawsuit had argued the map’s districts were not compact enough and violated the state’s constitution.
The Missouri Supreme Court on May 12 upheld the state’s 2025 redistricting map, possibly flipping one more seat to Republican from Democrat.
“Drawing maps establishing congressional districts is a political process, involving policy decisions that are political in nature, best left to elected representatives and the citizens of this state, not judges,” the court’s unanimous ruling says.
“Courts are tasked with deciding only the legality, not the prudence, of a congressional district map.”
The state legislature redrew its districts in September 2025 amid the ongoing redistricting battle between the Democratic and Republican parties. The map, which potentially gives Republicans an extra seat by breaking up Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s District 5, was hit with two lawsuits. Cleaver has occupied that seat for more than 21 years.
In one suit, a group of 16 plaintiffs argued the new map violated Article III, Section 45 of Missouri’s constitution, which says “districts shall be composed of contiguous territory as compact and as nearly equal in population as may be.”
The new districts were not sufficiently compact, they said. But lower courts found in favor of the state, which argued that the new map was statistically as compact, or even more so, than previous state maps.
In appealing to the state’s Supreme Court, the plaintiffs said the lower courts erred by crediting that analysis, because it rested on average compactness across Missouri, instead of paying attention to individual districts.
Missouri’s Supreme Court disagreed, and said the state had “considered the totality of the evidence, including expert testimony, county and municipal splits, and population density.”
This story is developing and will be updated.
