The Campaign Legal Center and ACLU affiliates tell the Supreme Court that "voting has begun" under the 2022 map

Legal advocacy organization filing an amicus brief with the ACLU of Missouri Foundation and the ACLU Foundation

“Pursuant to this Court’s orders and the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling on state law, election administration has proceeded under the 2022 map, ballots have already been mailed, and voting has begun. … This Court must once again step in to restore order by granting the Applicants’ requested relief.”
Read the original text (opens in a new tab)Brief of Amici Curiae Campaign Legal Center, ACLU of Missouri Foundation and ACLU Foundation, No. 26A388 · Campaign Legal CenterBrief, Summary of Argument, p. 3, filed September 23, 2026
Open source (opens in a new tab)US Supreme Court again blocks Missouri's gerrymandered congressional map · Missouri IndependentArticle, September 25, 2026
Read the original text (opens in a new tab)People Not Politicians v. Onder, No. 26A388: per curiam order granting stay (September 25, 2026) · Supreme Court of the United StatesSlip opinion pp. 1-5 (per curiam), September 25, 2026

Source and context

Original text

Brief of Amici Curiae Campaign Legal Center, ACLU of Missouri Foundation and ACLU Foundation, No. 26A388 (opens in a new tab) · Campaign Legal CenterBrief, Summary of Argument, p. 3, filed September 23, 2026

About this source

Amicus brief supporting the applicants, People Not Politicians and Richard von Glahn, in their September 22 application to stay the Eighth Circuit's ruling.

Archived copy (opens in a new tab)

Reporting

US Supreme Court again blocks Missouri's gerrymandered congressional map (opens in a new tab) · Missouri IndependentArticle, September 25, 2026

About this source

Report on the Supreme Court's September 25 order, with the sequence of court actions since September 3, the filings of Missouri and the plaintiffs, and county election officials' account of absentee voting under the 2022 map.

Original text

People Not Politicians v. Onder, No. 26A388: per curiam order granting stay (September 25, 2026) (opens in a new tab) · Supreme Court of the United StatesSlip opinion pp. 1-5 (per curiam), September 25, 2026

About this source

Unsigned per curiam order on an application that Circuit Justice Brett Kavanaugh referred to the full Court. It stays the Eighth Circuit's September 21 mandate and September 22 order and the district court's September 21 and 22 injunctions, keeps the Court's September 10 stay in place, and says the lower courts should not prohibit use of the 2022 map or require use of the 2025 map in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri. The text of the order shows no separate opinion or noted dissent.

Before the quotation

The Eighth Circuit had ordered a permanent injunction requiring the 2025 map on September 21, and absentee voting in Missouri began on September 22.

After the quotation

The Supreme Court granted the applicants' stay on September 25.

How this statement is classified

Condemned

Responding to: Ordering Missouri to return to the 2025 map after ballots have been printed and mailed and voting has begun would create the electoral disorder that the Purcell principle exists to prevent.

The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.

Why this label?

The reference point is use of the 2025 map in the 2026 general election. The brief argues that the election is under way under the 2022 map and asks the Court to stop the Eighth Circuit's order requiring the 2025 map, which opposes that use. The closest competing label, “Challenged the characterization”, loses because the brief seeks a specific outcome.

Recorded on
Published here

More from this case

Read the full case

Mike Kehoe

“It is disappointing that today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court means Missouri will conduct its November general election under a different congressional map than its primary election. Voters deserved consistency and certainty, and not for the rules to be changed between elections. Nevertheless, Missouri will follow the Court’s order.”
Read statement

Supreme Court of the United States

“In short, as a matter of state law, the 2022 map—not the 2025 map—must be used in the 2026 congressional election. … At this late date, ordering reversion to the 2025 map in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos. Purcell protects against such disorder. … And the District Court and Court of Appeals should not order or otherwise require Missouri to use the 2025 map in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri.”
Read statement

Bob Onder

“to invalidate a primary in which 1.2 million Missourians chose their primary candidates is really to invalidate our whole electoral process by judicial fiat. A very bad decision by the Missouri Supreme Court, an excellent decision yesterday by the Eighth Circuit.”
Read statement