BOMBSHELL: State Supreme Court ruling ROCKS midterm elections

We've got some genuinely unexpected. breaking news out of Missouri. The state. Supreme Court just unanimously, all. seven judges, not a partisan split, blocked the new Trump-backed. congressional map from being used in the. November midterm election, and ordered. the whole thing to be put to a statewide. vote instead. Which means the map that. Republicans had rammed through last. year, specifically designed to dismantle. one Democratic district and hand the. Republican Party a 7-1 map in the. state's House delegation, is dead for. this cycle. The 2020 census map stays in.

effect for November. This was one of. Donald Trump's marquee redistricting. plays in his national push to squeeze. out an extra House seat in Missouri, but. multiple extra House seats across the. country before midterms, and it just. collapsed. So, how did we get here? After Trump publicly urged Republicans. nationwide to redraw their maps. mid-decade for partisan advantage, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe called a. special legislative election. specifically designed to reconfigure. Representative Cleaver's district. That's a district that the Democratic. lawmaker had carried with at least 60%.

of the vote in each of the last two. elections. Republicans stretched his. Kansas City stronghold eastward into. rural, deep red territory, redrawing it. so aggressively that about 59% of the. district's voters were brand new to it. under this revised map. This is textbook. gerrymandering. The elected officials. pick their voters, not the other way. around. But opponents of the gerrymander. didn't just complain about it, they. organized. There was a group called. People Not Politicians that spearheaded. a referendum petition, and they gathered.

over 300,000 signatures so they could. force this map to a statewide vote. That. was way more signatures than they. needed. And how did Missouri's. Republican Secretary of State Denny. Hoskins respond to that? He sat on the. petition. He waited until primary. election day in August, the exact moment. that it would cause maximum chaos, so. that he could reject it. And he claimed. that the referendum process couldn't. legally be used for congressional. redistricting at all. I mean, just think. about the the sheer audacity of that. move. You've got Hoskins who didn't. reject the petition when it was filed.

He didn't reject it months in advance. that voters could actually plan. accordingly. He sat on 300,000. signatures and dropped the rejection on. primary day guaranteeing maximum. confusion and giving the map every. possible extra month to operate before. anybody could stop it. In case you were. wondering what it looked like when a. political hack purposefully runs out the. clock and lucky for him a lower court. agreed with him, but unlucky for him the. state's highest court has unanimously. said, "No, that's wrong. The Secretary.

of State screwed this up and the. petition was {quote} legal, sufficient, and timely all along." Here's that. ruling, {quote} "The court reverses the. circuit court's judgment. The referendum. petition was legal, sufficient, and. timely and the secretary incorrectly. concluded otherwise. HB1 did not go into. effect and will not go into effect. unless and until approved by the voters. The congressional redistricting the. General Assembly established in 2022. remains in full force and effect for the. November 2026 general election." And it. wasn't even just this one ruling. The. same day the same court also ruled.

against Hoskins on a completely separate. matter restoring a citizen initiative. ballot measure that he'd also wrongly. rejected. So, that's two for two against. the same Republican Secretary of State. in one afternoon from a unanimous court. in Missouri by the way, not exactly a. bastion of liberalism and yet that's how. far off the cliff today's GOP has gone. Now, naturally Missouri's Republican. Attorney General Katherine Hanaway is. losing her mind about this calling it a. {quote} full-fledged constitutional.

crisis and vowing to immediately appeal. to the Supreme Court of the United. States, which I got to say as an aside. is pretty rich that she claims the. constitutional crisis here is that a. conservative state Supreme Court ruled. that Republicans unprecedented mid-cycle. gerrymander and map-rigging scheme. wasn't greenlit and that God forbid. voters would get a chance to actually. weigh in. Yes, the humanity of allowing. a democracy to work like a democracy. must be a tough pill to swallow for the.

most autocratic political party in US. history. And of course, Ashcroft is. framing this as some kind of an. unprecedented judicial overreach saying, and I'm quoting here, "Never before in. American history has a court overturned. a congressional map after a primary and. before a general election." Which, sure, maybe that specific sequencing is. unusual, but you know what's also. unusual? A secretary of state sitting on. a legally valid referendum petition. until the exact day it would be do the. most damage, then trying to nullify. 300,000 Missourian signatures with some.

legal theory that the state's own. Supreme Court unanimously rejected. If. you're going to complain about. unprecedented, maybe don't be the side. that manufactured the entire crisis in. the first place. And I think that that's. the tell here, because notice how nobody. on the Republican side is out here. explaining why this specific map is fair. or why voters shouldn't get a say in. whether it stands. They're not defending. the map on the merits, they are. attacking the process that would let. voters weigh in on it. That's the same. instinct that we've seen play out over.

and over again this redistricting cycle. in state after state. When you can't win. the argument on the merits, you whine. about the process instead. And that's. ultimately the story of this entire. mid-cycle redistricting push nationally. Trump wanted Republicans to squeeze out. as many extra house seats as possible. through mid-cycle map redrawing across. more than a dozen states, all in service. of holding onto razor-thin house. majorities that he is terrified of. losing in November. And Missouri, of all. places, just became one of the very few. states where that scheme actually got.

stopped. And it wasn't by Democrats in. the legislature, it wasn't by the. federal courts, it was by ordinary. Missourians who organized a petition, gathered 30 times the needed signatures, and forced a Republican-appointed state. Supreme Court to unanimously side with. them over their own Secretary of State. Here's a snippet from the arguments at. the Missouri Supreme Court, wherein the. state of Missouri broadcast their lack. of any intention to follow the law in. their desperation to give Daddy Trump. his gerrymander. >> And I mean I mean let's be honest, if.

this had been brought to us earlier, then we could be in a situation where we. could be deciding this in time for the. primary election. And and in Maggard, we've already made that decision. We've. already said that the. that the new map HB 1 would not go into. effect. as of December 9th if the certificate is. sufficient. >> Three points, Your Honor. If the court. only addresses the certificate of. sufficiency, the state would put the. referendum on the ballot, but it would. not change the map. >> What what an extraordinary circumstance.

we find our way in. >> You have just heard the state openly. announce that they intend to defy this. court's ruling in Maggard. That if you find this petition. sufficient, the Secretary of State will. ignore what you said in Maggard, and. instead run an election on something. that's not the law, and you told him. would not be the law. You know, this. court got that Maggard decision out. immediately. You expedited that. decision. You you issued it I think the. same day or maybe the next day. Gave the Secretary plenty of time. to understand what was going to happen.

and what he needed to do. But he chose. not to do any of that. And yet and when Your Honor pushed on. the on the state's counsel, they have. openly told you now that if you find. this petition sufficient, they will use. this bill that you told them. is not the law. That's what they said in the certificate. of well, the letter attached to the. certificate of insufficiency at page. A46. Even if it is ultimately.

determined, I'm quoting, "that a referendum on congressional. districting is constitutionally. permissible, the 2026 general election. must go forward under the House Bill 1. map." Exactly the opposite of what this. court said. And that's not just some. some lawyer saying it. This is the. Attorney General saying it as part of. the statement of the Secretary of State. on sufficiency. They convinced the trial. court to say it. On page 837, the trial. court held, "House Bill 1 remains in. full force and effect for the general.

election." That is wrong. It is wrong as a matter of law and it's. very dangerous for an election that is. but a few weeks away. They're getting They're telling you that. they're going to run an election on. something that is not the law. And And. if we want to do the parade of horrible. things, perhaps Missouri won't have a. congressional delegation. Because as we point out in in the. briefing, federal law requires us to run. this election based on the law as. established by the state. That's not. House Bill 1. We can't do it. So,

Judge, it's an extraordinary. circumstance. I understand that it is. But the reason we're here, as you. pointed out, is that the Secretary has. delayed all of this. If we were doing. this in March or May, we would have. plenty of time to resolve all of these. issues. But here we are. >> So, keep an eye on Missouri's 5th. District this fall. Cleaver is still. running, still favored, and now doing it. under the original map that his own. district voted for. And keep an eye on. this appeal to the Supreme Court as. well, because you can bet the same. national Republican operatives that.

pushed this map in the first place. aren't done fighting for it yet. But at. least for today, chalk this up to a. genuine win for the basic idea that. voters, not secretaries of state playing. games with the calendar, should get to. decide how their own districts are. drawn. >> [music]. >> Before you go, one quick request. It's. become clear to me that this White House. is dead set on preventing me from. reaching any audience. Trump's decision. to put me as the first name on his. enemies list is a testament to that. But.

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