A topsy-turvy legal fight over Missouri’s congressional map returned to the Supreme Court for the third time this month, creating uncertainty in pivotal midterm elections days after the state began sending out mail-in ballots.
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People Not Politicians, an anti-gerrymandering group, asked the Supreme Court late Tuesday to block yet again a map that would likely allow Republicans to pick up an extra seat in the U.S. House.
The group wants the justices to mandate the state use an older map that gave Democrats a good shot at holding two of the eight House seats in the state. The November elections will determine control of both the House and Senate.
The filing came after a Missouri-based federal appeals court on Monday ordered the state to use the GOP-friendly map, reviving a seemingly dead fight by state Republicans to gerrymander districts ahead of the midterms that came at the request of President Donald Trump.
People Not Politicians said the 11th-hour legal battle could “result in chaos on both sides of Election Day: confusion over how to conduct the election now, and uncertainty over the rules governing its results.”
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The Supreme Court blocked the map favoring Republicans twice in recent weeks, before it returned to the lower courts for additional legal wrangling that resulted in the appeals court decision Monday.
The election fight is messy because the state held primary contests in August under the new GOP-friendly map, but it has already sent out ballots for November using the map beneficial to Democrats.
The disconnect likely portends additional legal disputes to come.
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