Missouri election official orders old congressional map used instead of Trump-backed one after weeks of legal wrangling

(AP) — Missouri is poised to hold its November election with congressional districts passed after the last census, after the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday again rejected a new map backed by President Donald Trump that Republicans hoped could help them win an additional seat in the pivotal midterms.The Supreme Court's decision marked a defining moment in a pitched legal battle that has lasted nearly a year and caused confusion for voters. Citing the court's latest action, Missouri's chief election official directed local authorities to use U.S.

House districts passed in 2022, as the state’s highest court had ordered.The Trump administration had urged courts to allow use of the president’s preferred map, drawn at his request last year.The decision means Missouri could run the November general election with different U.S. House districts than were used in the August primary — an extremely rare situation that could switch the candidate choices for more than a million potential voters, or nearly 1 in 4 voters statewide, according to an Associated Press estimate.No Supreme Court justices publicly dissented from the brief order. It did not detail the court’s legal reasoning, as is typical in emergency appeals.The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.S.

Supreme Court decision.Missouri's highest court scrutinizes secretary of state’s actionsEarlier Thursday, Missouri's top court convened a hearing on whether to hold Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in contempt for not following its orders to use the districts passed after the last census. Hoskins had instead told local election authorities to use the new Trump-backed map, pointing to a competing order from a federal judge on Tuesday that forbade him from using anything other than the new districts.Missouri Supreme Court judges, while questioning a state attorney representing Hoskins, repeatedly pressed for Hoskins to send out guidance Thursday to use the 2022 version of the congressional districts.“We’re in a precarious situation,” Chief Justice W. Brent Powell said.Hoskins later released a statement acknowledging the U.S.

Supreme Court decision, saying “my Office is directing local election authorities to use the 2022 congressional map.”The court then reconvened, finding Hoskins in contempt for violating its order not to use the Trump-backed map b… (AP) — Missouri election official orders old congressional map used instead of Trump-backed one after weeks of legal wrangling.