Trump Rails Against Missouri Ruling Putting Gerrymandered Map on Ice

In a blow to the GOP’s hopes of using gerrymandered congressional districts to hold on to their House majority, Missouri’s Supreme Court on Thursday put the brakes on a map that likely would have given Republicans an extra seat in the state’s delegation. And Donald Trump wasn’t happy about it.

“The Missouri Supreme Court just ridiculously ruled in favor of changing the maps back to what they were a long time ago. It’s called, Ancient History!” the president wrote in a social media post in response to the court’s unanimous ruling declaring that a congressional map from 2022 must be used in Missouri until its voters approve a new one.

“The problem is, according to Legal Scholars, that not only was the ruling horrible, ridiculous, and unConstitutional, but there won’t be enough time to change the map back with the Election coming up in a very short period of time,” Trump added. “The Election Process, as usual, is being disturbed in America!”

We assume that those last statements will find their way into a filing in the legal battle over the president’s efforts to give his administration a say over who gets to vote by mail.

One part of the argument of the states and voting rights groups challenging the United States Postal Service’s rule on the issue is that a new system could not possibly be put in place without major chaos and confusion ahead of the midterms.

Here, Trump is essentially saying the same thing.

The Missouri ruling does create some problems because the state’s primary earlier this year was held in the new districts, but the old map will now have to be used in November.

However, that is a problem of the GOP’s own making.

In an attempt to derail a Democratic effort to put the question of whether to adopt or reject the gerrymandered map to Missouri voters this fall, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins waited until the last moment to declare their referendum insufficient.

It was that decision that the state’s Supreme Court ruled to be illegal.

“The referendum petition was legal, sufficient, and timely, and the secretary incorrectly concluded otherwise,” the ruling states. “HB 1 did not go into effect and will not go into effect unless and until approved by the voters. The congressional redistricting the General Assembly established in 2022 remains in full force and effect for the November 2026 general election.”

The state’s Republicans vowed to take their redistricting effort to the US Supreme Court, which has been sympathetic to the GOP’s cause of rigging maps to their benefit.

“Never before in American history has a court overturned a congressional map after a primary and before a general election,” stated Missouri’s Attorney General Catherine Hanaway (R). “This unprecedented decision clearly violates federal law and has thrust our state into a full‑fledged constitutional crisis.”

What she didn’t mention is that the GOP’s mid-decade redistricting spree was also unprecedented and that Republicans are the ones who brought about this crisis.

While the decision leaves them scrambling, fair election advocates were celebrating.

“This is what democracy looks like, the people of Missouri demanded a voice, and the court just confirmed what we’ve been saying all along: People, not politicians, will have the final say,” stated Richard von Glahn, the executive director of the group that collected the required signatures for the referendum.

“This victory reaches beyond Missouri,” he added. “In a year when map-drawing has become a national weapon, courts across the country are watching what happens here. A Missouri win for the referendum is a signal that the people still hold the power.”

That’s a nice sentiment, but it remains to be seen what the anti-democracy majority of the US Supreme Court has to say about it.