Lawmakers in states across the country have continued to jump into a nationwide gerrymandering arms race. And voters, who will have fewer opportunities to make their voices heard and elect representatives who will fight for their communities, will be harmed as a result.
Pushed by the Trump administration, the Missouri Legislature joined this race to the bottom by passing a new congressional map that violates the Missouri Constitution.
Campaign Legal Center, alongside the ACLU Voting Rights Project and the ACLU of Missouri, and on behalf of individual Missouri voters, has stepped in to protect voters from harm. We are suing so that voters can pick their politicians, not the other way around.
What’s happening in Missouri?
The Missouri Constitution allows congressional redistricting only once per decade, following the U.S. Census. Its new mid-decade map, drawn in 2025, is a clear violation of the state constitution, which ensures new maps are being drawn only after apportionment, not multiple times a decade for political gain.
The Missouri Constitution also grants voters the right to vote in districts that are as compact as possible, so that closely united communities can elect representatives who best represent their shared interests.
In direct violation of this requirement, Missouri’s new map fractures the Kansas City area.
Under Missouri’s previous map (and going back nearly six decades), Kansas City was represented by a single congressional district. This ensured that the residents of this diverse city had a unified voice in Congress that accurately represented their needs and could fight to solve the unique problems they faced.
Under the new map, however, Kansas City is split among three different districts, expanded to include far-flung rural areas and erasing that previously unified voice. As a result, neither the voters in these rural areas nor the residents of Kansas City will have a member of Congress that can fully dedicate themselves to the distinct needs of these differing groups.
Because of these clear violations, we are urging the Circuit Court of Jackson County to rule the new map unconstitutional, because every American deserves fair representation.
Elected officials make important decisions about the lives of everyday Americans. When these officials manipulate voting maps to make them less fair, voters are deprived of having an equal say on which elected officials represent them and the issues that matter to their community.
Learn more about the case here.
How can we stop gerrymandering?
Campaign Legal Center has been sounding the alarm on the issue of gerrymandering for years. What we need now is a national solution to prevent gerrymandering once and for all.
Learn more about how we can combat gerrymandering here.
Elections should be determined by voters, not politicians who manipulate voting maps. Gerrymandering undermines the foundation of our democracy by unfairly silencing voters and depriving them of adequate representation. Join us in demanding fair maps and holding lawmakers accountable — because every voice deserves to be heard.
