STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
What on Earth is going on in Missouri? We're going to try to explain a move by the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Brett Kavanaugh blocked a federal judge's ruling on which map Missouri should use for congressional districts in an election less than two months away. Jason Rosenbaum with St. Louis Public Radio is following today's development. Jason, hi.
JASON ROSENBAUM, BYLINE: Good to talk to you again, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK, what is Kavanaugh saying, and what does it have to do with who votes for who?
ROSENBAUM: So it is a very complicated situation, but I'll try to sum it up the best I can. Up until a few hours ago, a federal judge put a temporary restraining order on Missouri's secretary of state to use anything other than a map that President Donald Trump asked Republicans to draw to gain another House seat. What the Supreme Court did was put a stay on that order. And because of - that happened, a map that lawmakers approved in 2022 that basically guarantees Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver wins reelection is back on right now.
Now, the order says that this case could still move through the federal judiciary, so I'm going to be cautious by saying - by not saying, like, it's over and the Democrats won. The redistricting opponents are certainly celebrating this as a final victory, but the secretary of state, Denny Hoskins - his attorney basically says they're going to comply with the Missouri Supreme Court order to use the more Democratic-leaning map, and they're evaluating next steps.
INSKEEP: Jason, this is..
ROSENBAUM: But as of now...
INSKEEP: Yeah.
ROSENBAUM: ...The 2022 map that helps the Democrats is back in place in Missouri.
INSKEEP: Jason, this a mess, so we're going to take a little bit of extra time and just try to understand it. I think it's something that people are going to be following. There has been this entire yearlong battle over redistricting in different states, President Trump pushing Republicans to skew map after map after map to give his party more seats. In Missouri - do I have this right? - there already were almost all Republican-leaning districts, but there was one district represented by a Democrat, and Republicans were going to eliminate that district. That's the thing that they tried in 2025, and that's the thing that we're arguing over now. Is that right?
ROSENBAUM: Yes. This was part of a national redistricting push, where Republicans in Texas and Florida redrew the maps as a way to prevent Republicans from losing control of the House. And Missouri was part of that because Missouri Republicans redrew their maps mid-decade with an attempt to try and oust Cleaver, who has represented a Kansas City-based district since 2005.
But, you know, Democrats have fought back against that by, for example, redrawing maps in California. And the Democrats fought back in Missouri by trying to put the 2025 map up for a referendum. And because they got the signatures and because the Missouri Supreme Court said they could do that, it meant that the 2025 map never went into effect and was never law. And that is kind of what has triggered this judicial skirmish...
INSKEEP: Yeah.
ROSENBAUM: ...In the first place. And it appears for now, until something else changes...
INSKEEP: Something else happens.
ROSENBAUM: ...It's in the Democrats' favor.
INSKEEP: Yeah, our colleagues here in Washington remind me there is a second district that could be seen as a blue district that was going to be eliminated by this, as well. So we're talking about Kansas City. We're talking about St. Louis. Missouri is a state with a lot of Democrats but an overwhelming majority in the Legislature of Republicans, and they're the people who attempted to change the map.
And let's review, also, the state Supreme Court said, your new map is no good. Can't do it this year because there's a referendum that has to be done first. The U.S. Supreme Court said, we're not going to interfere. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the other day, not going to interfere with this state Supreme Court ruling, so you got to use the old map. And then a district judge weighed in, and now Brett Kavanaugh weighs in again, and he says, District Judge, hold on. Your order doesn't take effect, but this is not over yet. Is that what you said earlier?
ROSENBAUM: I mean, again, we're still sort of assessing this because it just came down, like, an hour ago.
INSKEEP: Got it.
ROSENBAUM: And it is possible that the federal judiciary could move this case extraordinarily fast. I think that one of the things that I'm looking at right now is the stay on the order would remain in effect if the U.S. Supreme Court grants cert on this, which for layman's terms, if they take that up, that would mean that the 2022 map would be in effect until they send down a judgment.
INSKEEP: Got it.
ROSENBAUM: And again, we're still working through this, but the U.S. Supreme Court typically doesn't act extraordinarily quickly, but they sometimes do because of the emergency docket, so...
INSKEEP: Well, let's talk about the timing because we have this election coming up in November. It would decide control of the House of Representatives. It's plausible that this seat or two in Missouri could make a big difference one way or the other. So what is the time frame? How much time do election officials have to let the courts decide this?
ROSENBAUM: I mean, they're running out of time. Like, they have to send out military ballots by either September 18 or 19. And, yeah, it's just one seat right now, but it affects the entire map. So this entire situation has thrown the electoral situation in Missouri into chaos because, see, while that federal judge TRO was in place and the Missouri Supreme Court order was in place, like, election officials just didn't know what to do. So now they know what to do. They're going with the 2022 map, and hopefully, because it's only been a couple of days, they're going to still be able to administer the election without any discernible problems.
INSKEEP: OK.
ROSENBAUM: But it has caused lots of heartburn.
INSKEEP: Can you help me understand another thing? Because one factor here, one reason the federal district judge ruled the way that he did at one point was they already had a primary.
ROSENBAUM: Yeah.
INSKEEP: They did the primary on the 2025 map. Do they now just shift all the district lines, and there may be people who voted in the primary in one district, and now they live in a different district for this fall? Is that how this is going to work?
ROSENBAUM: I mean, Steve, I'm one of those people. I was in the first district, which is in St. Louis, which is not being targeted, and now I'm in the second district. So yes, this creates a just mess of a situation. But the Missouri Supreme Court blamed this squarely on Denny Hoskins because he waited until the last minute to make a determination on the redistricting referendum. So this is seen as - like, the reason why this is such a mess right now is because the Republican statewide officials tried to basically play games and try to run out the clock on this referendum. They failed, and it seems now that the 2022 map is in place until we're told otherwise.
INSKEEP: OK. Jason Rosenbaum of St. Louis Public Radio, thanks so much for the explanation. I really appreciate it. And just to review the news as we know it, Justice Brett Kavanaugh has temporarily stayed a federal district judge's order, and that means, for now, anyway, a 2022 district map is in effect for Missouri. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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