{"id":28347,"date":"2026-08-05T08:47:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T03:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28347"},"modified":"2026-08-05T08:47:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T03:47:02","slug":"new-lawsuit-challenges-missouris-rejection-of-citizen-challenge-to-gop-gerrymander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=28347","title":{"rendered":"New Lawsuit Challenges Missouri\u2019s Rejection of Citizen Challenge to GOP Gerrymander"},"content":{"rendered":"<script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n\r\n<br><div id=\"article-content\">\n            \n\n\n\n\n<p>The group behind an effort to force a statewide vote on Missouri Republicans\u2019 7-1 gerrymander filed a new lawsuit Tuesday night challenging the Secretary of State\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/news\/missouri-secretary-of-state-insufficient-challenge-gerrymander\" target=\"_blank\">finding<\/a> earlier in the day that its petition is \u201cinsufficient.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<!-- \/wp:post-content -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Missouri law lets voters block legislation if they gather enough signatures on a petition and win a subsequent statewide vote.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R), who dragged the certification process out as long as legally possible \u2014 until Missouri\u2019s primary day Tuesday \u2014 said that the petition was insufficient not because of the number of signatures turned in, but because, he claimed, it is unconstitutional to challenge a map under the referendum process.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>People Not Politics, the group behind the petition, filed a lawsuit in Cole County Circuit Court hours after Hoskin\u2019s announcement. TPM obtained a copy; the lawsuit is not yet on the public docket.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In the lawsuit, the group argued that there are specific exceptions from the referendum process \u2014 including emergency laws and appropriations \u2014\u00a0but that maps do not fall into those categories.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cLike the Missouri Constitution, the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit a state from subjecting a redistricting bill to the referendum,\u201d it said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The lawsuit quoted <em>Moore v. Harper<\/em>, the recent Supreme Court case in which the justices rejected the independent state legislature theory, which held that legislatures enjoy exclusive power over setting federal election rules without oversight from state courts, governors\u2019 vetoes or referendum processes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cPut simply: \u2018A state legislature may not create congressional districts independently of requirements imposed by the state constitution with respect to the enactment of laws,\u2019\u201d it said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The case will likely reach the state Supreme Court. Various challenges \u2014 including efforts to find the new gerrymander unconstitutional, and to force Hoskins to move faster in the certification process \u2014 have already made it up to the Supreme Court, and been unsuccessful.\u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The new gerrymander would change the state\u2019s congressional delegation from a 6-2 Republican advantage to a 7-1 edge by erasing one of its majority-Democratic, majority-Black seats.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Read the lawsuit here: <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1jr8tIvhnN4GT3TzKUm1kEDcudH0wBwWc\/preview\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- \/wp:html --><!-- \/wp:paragraph -->          <\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n      FB.init({\n        appId: \"101800829865996\",\n        xfbml: true,\n        version: ' v2.6'\n      });\n      window.fbAsyncInit.__didInit = true;\n    };\n    (function(d, s, id) {\n      var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n      if (d.getElementById(id)) {\n        return;\n      }\n      js = d.createElement(s);\n      js.id = id;\n      js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n      fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n    }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n  <\/script>\r\n<br><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The group behind an effort to force a statewide vote on Missouri Republicans\u2019 7-1 gerrymander filed a new lawsuit Tuesday night challenging the Secretary of State\u2019s finding earlier in the day that its petition is \u201cinsufficient.\u201d\u00a0 Missouri law lets voters block legislation if they gather enough signatures on a petition and win a subsequent statewide&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Hoskins.png?w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}