Campaign Legal Center filed amicus briefs at the Missouri Supreme Court, the Eighth Circuit, and at the U.S. Supreme Court to protect Missourians' ability to reject a gerrymandered map via ballot referendum, and vote under a lawful map.
Back to topMissouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ cynical attempt to impose an unlawful and gerrymandered map before the 2026 midterm election has been stopped thanks to the advocacy of more than 300,000 Missourians and following multiple decisions issued by both the Missouri Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
On September 10, 2026, the U.S...
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, Richard von Glahn, 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 separate litigation in federal court, an incumbent Congressman Robert Onder and others sued, alleging that the Missouri Supreme Court's order violated the U.S. Constitution, and the federal district court issued a temporary restraining order requiring that no map other than the unlawful H.B. 1 map could be used for the November 2026 election.
After multiple appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of the order of the Missouri Supreme Court, and granted a stay of the federal district court's order. The effect of these orders is that the 2022 map will be used in the November 2026 election.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC), the ACLU of Missouri (ACLU MO) and the ACLU Voting Rights Project (ACLU VRP) submitted multiple amicus briefs at the Missouri Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and 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 briefs from CLC, ACLU MO and ACLU VRP argue that Secretary Hoskins and his allies are asking to violate the Elections Clause by ignoring the laws of the state and Congress and using an unlawful map for the 2026 election. The briefs also argue 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, and that after the state Supreme Court has ruled, it is too late for federal courts to intercede in the state's ongoing election.
