The dispute began last year, when – with President Donald Trump’s encouragement – Missouri adopted a new map, known as HB 1. In December, opponents of the state’s new map – including Richard von Glahn – submitted more than 300,000 signatures in support of a petition to put the new map up for a vote in November 2026. Missouri’s top election official, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, rejected the petition on Aug. 4, 2026 – the last day to do so.
Von Glahn filed a lawsuit in state court on the same day, asking it to reverse Hoskins’ decision and block Missouri from using the new map. On Sept. 3, the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously granted that request. It wrote that “the plain language of … the Missouri Constitution authorizes a referendum as to ‘any act of the general assembly’ and no exception applies.” Because the referendum petition “was legal, sufficient, and timely,” the court concluded, the new map was never in effect and will not go into effect “unless and until approved by the voters at the November 2026 general election.”
The Missouri Supreme Court deemed “wholly unpersuasive” Hoskins’ argument that the failure to use the new map would lead to “confusion, expense, and practical difficulties.” “[T]hese arguments are particularly misplaced given the secretary’s delay created” the problems about which he is now complaining, the court wrote.
Hoskins went to the Supreme Court last Friday night, asking the justices to step in. He said that the state was “genuinely unsure whether it can switch its governing congressional map in time to run a timely federal election,” and he argued that the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling violates several provisions of the U.S. Constitution.
Von Glahn pushed back, arguing that the Supreme Court lacks the power to weigh in because the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling had rested only on state law – known as an “adequate and independent state-law” bar to Supreme Court review. But in any event, von Glahn continued, Hoskins’ federal constitutional arguments fall short on the merits.
Kavanaugh turned down Hoskins’ request on Tuesday afternoon without referring it to the full court.
