The Missouri Supreme Court has upheld a gerrymandered congressional map passed by the Republican-led state legislature and backed by President Donald Trump.
In three rulings issued Tuesday, the court dealt a staggering blow to voters’ months-long legal battle to block the new map, which will likely flip one congressional district to Republicans.
The three rulings — all unanimous — were released less than six hours after the court heard oral arguments in the cases.
In one of the three cases, the court ruled against voters attempting to exercise their right under the Missouri Constitution to veto state legislation by holding a referendum election. Missouri voters gathered more than 300,000 signatures last fall to put the referendum on the ballot, but state leaders refused to suspend the new map to allow voters to weigh in before claiming the legislation was in effect.
Despite that decision defying 100 years of precedent in Missouri, the state supreme court ruled in favor of GOP officials, allowing the new map to go into effect before voters hold the referendum.
The court also rejected arguments* on the legality of the map itself and its districts.
*The Elias Law Group (ELG) is representing plaintiffs in the Healey case challenging the compactness of the map. ELG Firm Chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.
