Cole County Judge considering arguments to the first of the redistricting lawsuits
Alison Patton
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Cole County judge heard arguments Wednesday on the first redistricting lawsuit in a string of legal challenges.
A group of voters is suing Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, arguing that redistricting can occur only after a census, as the state constitution and the state supreme court have ruled, according to pretrial briefs.
Attorney Chuck Hatfield, who is representing the voters in this case, said there’s specific language in the Missouri Constitution surrounding congressional redistricting that doesn’t allow for wiggle room.
Hatfield gave this example:
“When the number of representatives to which the state is entitled in the House of the Congress of the United States under census of 1950 and each census thereafter is certified to the governor,” this quote comes unedited from a slide show Hatfield presented at Wednesday’s trial, and it comes from the Missouri Constitution.
Hatfield said he bolded the words that have the most meaning during interpretation. He argues the law prohibits lawmakers from redistricting more than once during a decade.
Hoskins and the Missouri Republican State Committee, as an interested party, argue that the constitution doesn’t prohibit mid-decade redistricting, according to pretrial briefs. The pretrial brief cites the U.S. Constitution as well, arguing the power to redistrict is protected there.
Hoskins’ attorney Louis Capozzi argues that lawmakers can redistrict because the state constitution doesn’t explicitly prohibit it.
“The General Assembly has the power to act,” Capozzi said. “Until that power is taken away.”
Capozzi also said this lawsuit is about politics.
“This is a political question, it’s a political case,” Capozzi said. “The plaintiffs obviously disagree with the General Assembly’s political and policy gains in adopting the new congressional map.”
After the trial, Hatfield said politics is what started this.
“The state today said that this was a political issue, and I found it a little rich,” Hatfield said. “I think we all remember how this started, which is that the president of the United States told the Missouri General Assembly to redistrict.”
Governor Mike Kehoe signed the congressional map into law in late September. The map could cut out Democrat Emanuel Cleaver’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, opening up District 5 to a Republican.
Judge Christopher Limbaugh granted the Missouri Republican Party’s motion to intervene in this case because of the group’s interest in getting Republicans in office, including in the House of Representatives, according to the motion.
If the map is upheld by the courts, then it will go into effect on the November 2026 ballot, when U.S. Representatives in Missouri run for their seats again.
Hatfield said the earliest answer on the map could be in January, but it’s likely the lawsuits will end up in the Missouri Supreme Court.
Hatfield is also representing People Not Politicians in the lawsuit filed against Hoskins, which a different Cole County Judge will hear Thursday, and he is representing the group in a federal court case that Hoskins filed against the group.