Missouri asked the US Supreme Court late Friday night to revive, in time for November's midterms, the Trump-backed congressional map it had just lost in its own highest court, the Associated Press reported. Attorney General Catherine Hanaway's office filed the emergency application at 10:47 PM ET — hours after Missouri's Supreme Court refused to pause Thursday's ruling. "A federal-election-administration disaster is unfolding in Missouri," the state told the justices.
One day.
That is how long Missouri Republicans waited before running to Washington, and the hurry tells you what the map is worth to them: they believe they can draw the lines that win these elections before anyone votes in them.
The map carves up Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City district, stretching it east into rural Republican counties to hand the party seven of Missouri's eight House seats, up from six. Trump demanded the redraw; Missouri's legislature delivered it last year; Missourians answered with a referendum petition — more than 300,000 signatures, delivered in December. On Thursday every judge on the state's Supreme Court agreed the petition was "legal, sufficient, and timely" — so the map never took effect, cannot be used in November, and goes before Missouri's voters instead.
