(CN) - The Missouri Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday the state's constitution does not expressly limit the General Assembly's power to redraw congressional districts at any time, clearing the passage of new gerrymandered congressional maps ahead of 2026 midterms.

Voting 4-3, the justices found a 2025 state law, which repealed the congressional districts established in 2022 following the census and established new districts that favored Republicans, is constitutional.

Republicans have held a supermajority in both chambers of the Missouri General Assembly for over a decade. The lawmaking body has broad powers that can only be checked by specific constitutional limitations, which the justices argue do not exist in this case.

The General Assembly passed House Bill 1 in September 2025 by a 21-11 vote with only two Republicans dissenting during a special session called by Governor Mike Kehoe. President Donald Trump had praised the bill and said it would give Republicans an additional seat in Congress.

Four Missouri residents quickly sued in Cole County Circuit Court, claiming that the bill is unconstitutional and asking the court for an injunction to prevent the new map from going into effect.

On appeal, the residents acknowledged the state constitution doesn't expressly prohibit mid-decade redistricting but suggested that it was a "clear implication" given that the section does identify a specific time when congressional districts must be redrawn - after every census.   

They argue that the word "when" in the section is operative and sets only one time for redistricting, prohibiting all other times.

"But the word 'when' does not mean 'only when,'" Justice Zel Fischer wrote for the majority. "Against the backdrop of plenary legislative power to redistrict at any time, the word 'when' as used [here] simply triggers a time that the General Assembly must legislate congressional districts and does not limit redistricting to that time only."

Alternatively, the residents had pointed to another section in the same article of the Missouri Constitution which provides state legislative districts "may be altered from time to time as public convenience may require."

The residents argued that the lack of similar language in the congressional redistricting section is telling of the spirit of the section.

But Fischer said the state legislative district section differs in that it refers to a redistricting commission rather than the General Assembly itself, which he said unconvincingly compared two bodies with completely differing powers.

If anything, Fischer wrote, allowing a redistricting commission to perform mid-decade redistricting reflects a baseline understand that the practice is permissible in the first place. Chief Justice W. Brent Powell, and along with Justices Kelly Broniec and Ginger Gooch.

The "Missouri FIRST Map" carves up the Kansas City district, casting its voters into three districts that give Republicans an electoral advantage of 7-1. Republicans claim the redraw reflects the state's conservative values, while Democrats call it a power grab and an assault on democracy.

Justice Paul Wilson, joined by Justices Robin Ransom and Mary Russell, dissented, arguing that the majority's reading of the section at issue in this case is illogically narrow.

"Respondents contend the General Assembly can draw congressional districts immediately after the apportionment and census are reported to the governor and then come back one day later and redistrict again, and that it may repeat this exercise as often as it likes," Wilson wrote.

This, Wilson asserts, couldn't be what the framers, voters or more than 70 years of legislators understood the redistricting section to mean.

Tuesday's opinion marks another in a series of victories for Missouri Republicans related to the congressional maps.

Other lawsuits, including one brought by the NAACP that challenged the governor's authority to call a special session for redistricting in the first place, also failed.

The General Assembly passed another bill during the special session that makes it harder for citizen initiative petitions aimed at amending the state constitution or state laws through signature gathering.

The bill moves the goal post to defeat a ballot measure brought by citizen-led initiatives, but not those placed on the ballot by the legislature, making it all but impossible to succeed.

Recently, citizen initiative petitions have mobilized efforts that ultimately legalized abortion and recreational marijuana as well as expanded Medicaid eligibility.

"The Missouri Supreme Court has reinforced what we've known all along - the Missouri FIRST Map and mid-decade redistricting are constitutional," Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said in a statement. "We will continue to vigorously defend the General Assembly's authority and the Missouri First Map."

U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver II, who represents the Kansas City district dissected by the Missouri FIRST Map, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Source: Courthouse News Service