From the Missouri’s congressional map saga
- Colleen Schrappen | Post-Dispatch | Sep 12, 2026
Secretary of State Denny Hoskins was sued Friday by five Missourians on behalf of voters who signed a referendum petition to put a gerrymandered congressional map to a vote, in another twist in a knotty legal case over redistricting.
The class-action lawsuit, filed in Cole County, seeks damages of between $100 and $500 for each of the more than 162,000 verified signers of the petition, which could cost, in total, anywhere from $16 million to more than $80 million.
And that could potentially balloon even higher, if all 300,000-plus signers of the referendum are included.
Three of those filing suit live in St. Louis: Fernando Bermudez, Joseph Welling and John Payne. Two live in St. Louis County: Cara Mengwasser and Gregory Fletcher.
The suit alleges that Hoskins failed to perform his duties when he refused to recognize the signatures that were gathered to pause the use of the new congressional map, redrawn by Republican leaders in 2025 in an effort to tilt a seat held by Democrat Rep. Emanuel Cleaver in the Kansas City area to the GOP.
One effect of Hoskins’ decision was that some voters cast their ballots in one district in the August primary and are likely to be voting in a different district in November.
The hullabaloo has made national headlines, as the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the attempt to use the redrawn map and justices from the Missouri Supreme Court briefly found Hoskins in contempt, until he told election officials to use the original congressional map from 2022, which was based on the 2020 census.
Some of the state’s GOP leaders continue to suggest there is a path to implement their preferred map and give the party a 7-1 edge in congressional seats, rather than the current 6-2 advantage.
That path, they say, is through the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The court next week is scheduled to take up the federal case out of St. Louis that had kept the redrawn GOP map alive for several days this week.
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled Sept. 3 that the 2025 map never had taken effect because opponents had gathered some 300,000 signatures to trigger the state’s referendum process. Republican leaders then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and filed the separate lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, which is dominated by Trump-appointed judges.
The hullabaloo has made national headlines, as the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the attempt to use the redrawn map and justices from the Missouri Supreme Court briefly found Hoskins in contempt, until he told election officials to use the original congressional map from 2022, which was based on the 2020 census.
Some of the state’s GOP leaders continue to suggest there is a path to implement their preferred map and give the party a 7-1 edge in congressional seats, rather than the current 6-2 advantage.
That path, they say, is through the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The court next week is scheduled to take up the federal case out of St. Louis that had kept the redrawn GOP map alive for several days this week.
The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ruled Sept. 3 that the 2025 map never had taken effect because opponents had gathered some 300,000 signatures to trigger the state’s referendum process. Republican leaders then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and filed the separate lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, which is dominated by Trump-appointed judges.
Read the article here: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/article_0a76e7b5-304e-48eb-b6a6-c61f6d7c8756.html