Missouri redistricting battle moves toward Supreme Court showdown

Missouri’s grueling, nearly year-long battle to block a Republican congressional gerrymander is entering its final weeks, with a Sept. 8 ballot deadline looming.

A Missouri state circuit court on Wednesday heard a challenge brought by People Not Politicians, the group leading an effort to put the gerrymander to a referendum vote on the November ballot. The group is asking the court to reverse Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ (R) decision to reject the measure, arguing that he wrongly concluded that voters don’t have the right to veto redistricting plans. 

State officials had deployed numerous delay tactics to slow down the referendum — part of a coordinated partisan effort to keep the measure off the ballot, prevent voters from using their referendum rights and dismantle a Kansas City congressional district without voters having a say.

Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians, said the circuit court judge indicated that a ruling will come quickly. 

“I think he understands that this is going to the Supreme Court and that his role here is to really collect the evidence and create a record, and it will move forward,” von Glahn said.

The state Supreme Court has already indicated it is eager to take up the case itself.

Last week, Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice W. Brent Powell sent an extraordinary letter urging the circuit court judge and parties to the lawsuit to move the case “expeditiously” to the state’s highest court. His warning came after Hoskins’ office requested that a different judge be assigned to the case, forcing yet another administrative delay.

Von Glahn said he had never seen the Missouri Supreme Court issue such a letter.

State officials had deployed numerous delay tactics to slow down the referendum — part of a coordinated partisan effort to keep the measure off the ballot, prevent voters from using their referendum rights and dismantle a Kansas City congressional district without voters having a say.

The Supreme Court also moved this week to expedite a related case challenging Hoskins’ decision to throw out nearly one-third of the signatures gathered by supporters of the redistricting referendum. 

Circuit Court Judge Christopher Limbaugh ruled that Hoskins was right to toss out the signatures, saying organizers began collecting them too soon. People Not Politicians appealed the ruling to the Western District, and the Supreme Court quickly intervened to transfer the case and set it for a Sept. 2 hearing. 

“I think they’re aware of the stakes here and the consequences of this,” von Glahn said, adding that the Missouri Supreme Court is aware of the state’s attempt to run out the clock on the referendum. “It’s taken us 251 days from when we turned in the signatures to get to arguments today. These are legal arguments that could have been made on Dec. 10.”

Under the Missouri Constitution, voters have the right to hold a referendum and veto state legislation. The constitution specifies some exceptions, but does not include congressional redistricting among them. 

Von Glahn said that the Republican National Committee, which has intervened in the case, argued Wednesday that it’s too late to put the measure on the ballot, even if supporters did everything correctly. 

That argument would give Hoskins the power to single-handedly block a referendum, von Glahn said.

“That’s very alarming,” von Glahn said, “that they think one person should be able to thwart the constitutional rights of Missourians and the highest court in the state. This is not how laws work.”

The Missouri Secretary of State’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.