The Missouri Supreme Court handed a massive, unanimous victory to Republicans on Tuesday, officially striking down a coordinated legal campaign and cementing the Missouri FIRST congressional map ahead of the 2026 election.
A few hours after hearing oral arguments, the state’s high court decisively rejected three separate lawsuits brought by liberal activist groups attempting to dismantle the map and suspend it through unverified referendum petitions.
“Today’s Missouri Supreme Court rulings are a HUGE victory for voters,” Gov. Mike Kehoe said following the decision.
Kehoe said Missouri’s common-sense values contrast sharply with the “extreme Left-wing agendas pushed in states in New York, California and Illinois,” adding the Missouri FIRST Map ensures those values are represented fairly.
The map, signed by Kehoe last September, ensures a favorable 7-1 split for Republicans. It redraws the Kansas City-area district currently held by Democrat Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, uniting the urban core with rural, conservative communities.
During Tuesday morning’s oral arguments, attorneys said the lawsuits against the Republican-drawn map were attempting to micromanage the Legislature.
“Appellants want this court to tilt the scale in favor of their political preferences and prioritize a single community of interest at the expense of every other voter in the state,” Kathleen T. Hunker with the Missouri attorney general’s office said.
John M. Gore, representing the Missouri Republican State Committee, told the justices the challengers failed to meet their heavy legal burden.
“No Missouri court in history has ever held that a congressional district drawn by the General Assembly violates the Constitution’s compactness requirement,” Gore said.
Conservative group Put Missouri First, which helped defend the map in court, celebrated the rapid decision as a fatal blow to out-of-state partisan operatives.
“Today’s unanimous rulings by the Missouri Supreme Court are a complete and decisive victory for the rule of law, the Missouri Constitution and the legislature’s lawful authority to enact congressional maps on behalf of the people of this state,” Mike Hafner with Put Missouri First said in a written statement.
“The Missouri First map is the Law of the Land,” the group’s statement said. “It is time for the Left to stop the games, accept reality and move on.”
Progressive activist groups reacted strongly over the swift, same-day ruling. The National Redistricting Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the court moved too quickly, accusing the justices of having their opinions finalized before the morning’s arguments even began.
“Mere hours after argument was held, the court released its decisions siding against voters in every respect,” the ACLU and Campaign Legal Center said in a joint statement.
The ruling secures a vital win for conservatives nationwide as President Donald Trump rallies red states to hold the line against blue-state gerrymandering.
