By Andrew Chung
Sept 10 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court blocked Missouri on Thursday from using a redrawn congressional map that favors Republicans in November’s midterm elections, dealing a setback to President Donald Trump and the party’s odds of maintaining its slim majority in the House of Representatives.
The justices granted an emergency request by the map’s challengers to suspend a federal judge’s decision that allowed only the reconfigured boundaries to be used in the November 3 elections.
The court’s brief order was unsigned and gave no explanation, as is common when the justices handle emergency matters. No justice publicly dissented from the decision.
The challengers, including a group opposed to the Republican-drawn map called People Not Politicians, had swiftly sought the Supreme Court’s intervention after St. Louis, Missouri-based Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark issued his decision on Tuesday.
Clark’s decision came shortly after the Supreme Court had declined to intervene in a separate bid by Missouri officials to reinstate the redrawn map, which the state’s top court had blocked until it is put to a referendum.
The judge’s order appeared to conflict with the Missouri Supreme Court’s unanimous September 3 ruling blocking the map, leaving the state’s congressional districts in limbo and injecting further confusion into the high-stakes electoral fight.
Missouri Republicans adopted the new map, which dismantled the Kansas City-based seat of longtime Democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver, in 2025 as part of a broader effort backed by President Donald Trump to redraw congressional districts in ways that could benefit Republican candidates.
Republicans hold a narrow 219-214 majority in the U.S. House, including one independent who caucuses with Republicans.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
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