KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri Sen. Rick Brattin, R-District 31, is among those who filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday over Missouri redistricting.
Brattin, U.S. Rep. Bob Onder, R-Mo., and Missouri voters Pat Thomas and Debra Havens are suing the state of Missouri and Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins.
The lawsuit comes after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Thursday that voters will decide whether to adopt U.S. congressional districts drawn in 2025 and used in the August primary election. That decision means the state will revert to congressional maps passed in 2022 for the upcoming November election.
The congressional map drawn in 2025 was adopted by the Missouri General Assembly in House Bill 1.
The lawsuit claims violations of the Elections Clause, Article I, Section 2 and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Hoskins is being sued because of his role of administering the state's election process as the Missouri Secretary of State.
The suit states that Onder and Brattin won nominations from particular voters in HB1-designated districts, and now the two will run in districts with voters they didn't campaign to in the primary election.
It also states that Thomas and Havens, the two voters in the suit, will have to "educate themselves about new candidates and issues because they are forced to vote in the general election" in a different district than the two voted in for the primary.
The two counties Thomas and Havens vote in fall in the Fifth Congressional District under HB1, but with the Missouri Supreme Court's decision Thursday, the two will vote in the Third Congressional District.
"The entire state of Missouri has now been plunged into legal and electoral uncertainty over which congressional maps govern Missouri’s 2026 general election and which candidates represent whom. This court should issue all appropriate relief without haste to ensure free and fair elections in November," the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit seeks a judgement that Thursday's actions were unlawful, and that state's failure to use the HB1 maps is unconstitutional.
Separately, the Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday in the congressional map case, after she had filed for a stay at the Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday, which was overruled Friday.
In the appeal, Hanaway's office claimed the decision "inflicts unprecedented chaos on Missouri."
RELATED | Missouri Supreme Court redistricting ruling surprises voters on both sides of aisle
State legislatures usually redraw congressional boundaries after new Census data is received at the end of each decade. A mid-decade redistricting effort is rare.
People Not Politicians responded Saturday to the lawsuits filed Friday asking federal judges to overturn the Missouri Supreme Court's decision.
“Anyone with a basic understanding of civics knows the legislature, which in Missouri includes the people via the referendum, is who makes law, not the judiciary. The attorney general is asking the Supreme Court of the United States to create a law that has never been the law in Missouri,” Richard von Glahn, executive of People Not Politicians Missouri, said in a press release. “It is an absurd request for a complete undoing of how laws are created. I am appalled that our attorney general would seek to strip Missouri voters of their lawmaking authority in such a brazen power grab.”
People Not Politicians is the group that gathered signatures for a referendum campaign to get the congressional maps on the November ballot.
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