Campaign Legal Center filed amicus briefs at the Missouri Supreme Court and at the U.S. Supreme Court to protect Missourians' ability to reject a gerrymandered map via ballot referendum.
Back to topMissouri voters have been fighting for the past year for their right to vote under fair maps and have their voices heard through the referendum process. Now, this battle has reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
After more than 300,000 Missourians signed a referendum petition on a mid-decade, gerrymandered map passed by the state legislature in 2025...
In September 2025, the Missouri General Assembly passed House Bill 1 (H.B. 1) which created a new, mid-decade, gerrymandered congressional map. In response, the people of Missouri exercised their rights under the Missouri Constitution by collecting signatures for a referendum petition on H.B. 1.
On December 9, 2025, Missourians submitted over 300,000 signatures in support of the referendum. Under the Missouri Constitution, this should have suspended the effectiveness of the new map until voters voted to approve it in the next election. Even though Missourians collected twice as many signatures as needed to get a referendum on the map on the ballot, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins announced that he would delay as long as possible in certifying the referendum petition as part of a strategy to ensure the new gerrymandered map would be used. After an eight-month delay, Secretary Hoskins eventually denied the referendum petition claiming that the referendum right does not apply to redistricting.
In response to the actions of Secretary Hoskins, a voter sued, and the Missouri Supreme Court ruled unanimously that under the Missouri Constitution, referenda apply to congressional redistricting as they do to any law passed by the General Assembly. Therefore, since sufficient signatures were submitted, the new map should have been suspended and “is not the law and has never been the law" in Missouri. The Missouri Supreme Court held that the 2026 election must go forward under the 2022 map, the only lawful congressional map in Missouri.
In an attempt to keep the new gerrymandered map in place, Missouri submitted an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC), the ACLU of Missouri (ACLU MO) and the ACLU Voting Rights Project (ACLU VRP) submitted an amicus brief at the Missouri Supreme Court and again at the U.S. Supreme Court to protect Missourians’ ability to participate in democracy by referendum and vote in lawful congressional districts this November.
Under the U.S. Elections Clause, the U.S. Constitution gives states the power to draw their own maps according to the laws of the state, which includes the people’s right to referendum, as the U.S. Supreme Court has held for over a century.
The brief from CLC, ACLU MO and ACLU VRP argues that Secretary Hoskins is asking the Supreme Court to let Missouri violate the Elections Clause by ignoring the laws of the state and Congress and using an unlawful map for the 2026 election. The brief also argues that Secretary Hoskins engaged in a cynical strategy of delay to avoid judicial review and claim it was too late for Missouri to use a lawful map. The U.S. Supreme Court cannot condone this kind of behavior from a state’s chief elections officer.
