JEFFERSON CITY — The Republican Missouri Secretary of State is ordered to answer to the Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday over why he should not be held in contempt of court for a directive to local election officials to use the 2025 gerrymandered congressional map for the November midterm election.
Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court ordered Denny Hoskins to use the map lawmakers drew in 2022 for the November election, not the one used in the August primary that lawmakers drew in 2025 in a move likely to give Republicans another seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In a unanimous decision written by Judge Ginger K. Gooch, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the 2025 map never legally went into effect because political campaign committee People Not Politicians Missouri filed a sufficient referendum petition before the map's effective date.
But on Tuesday, following a federal district judge's temporary restraining order that said Missouri could not legally use any map except for the 2025 gerrymandered map in the November election, Hoskins directed county clerks to build ballots using the district lines drawn in the 2025 map. Tuesday marked Missouri's statutory deadline to finalize the November ballot.
If the court finds Hoskins in contempt, he could face a fine or jail time.
The Missouri Attorney General's Office argued on Hoskins' behalf in court filings Wednesday that the federal judge's ruling supersedes the Missouri Supreme Court's ruling, making the Missouri Supreme Court's ruling unenforceable.
People Not Politicians appealed the federal judge's ruling to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which left the judge's ruling in place. People Not Politicians appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday evening, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh ordered a response from Hoskins by 9 a.m. Missouri time on Thursday. Kavanaugh oversees emergency appeals from Missouri and other states in the 8th Circuit.
On Tuesday, Kavanaugh declined to take action on a separate appeal filed by the Missouri Attorney General's Office asking the nation's highest court to intervene.