ACLU asks judge to suspend new congressional district map until public can vote on it

Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) — The ACLU of Missouri sued the Missouri Attorney General and Secretary of State on Tuesday, claiming they have evaded the state constitution’s rules on the referendum process.

The group, representing two Kansas City voters, is asking the Cole County courts to suspend House Bill 1, a bill passed during a special session that redrew the state’s congressional map mid-decade. The group argues a law is suspended when a referendum on it starts.

The voters are “concerned, they’re like, ‘I think that I’m in this district, I’m not sure,’ It was hard to find a searchable feature for them to figure out what district they lived in,” Tori Schafer, director of policy and campaigns at the ACLU of Missouri, said Tuesday. “They really want to understand, ‘Who am I? Who am I voting for? What is the primary election going to look like?’”

According to court documents,”‘[O]nce a referendum petition has received sufficient signatures to be placed on the general election ballot, the referred measure is placed before the people for their consideration as an original proposition; the prior action by the General Assembly and the Governor on the referred measure is suspended or annulled, and has no further legal effect or consequence.’”

“Previous Secretaries of State and Attorneys General have agreed with the established precedent that referred legislation is suspended upon receipt of the referendum petition,” Schafer said in a statement Tuesday.

The suit comes after the state claimed activist group People Not Politicians inaccurately announced Missouri’s new congressional district map was frozen after sending in more than 305,000 signatures to the Secretary of State Denny Hoskinson for a petition to put the new congressional map to a vote.

According to court documents, “‘Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway issued a statement saying the new House districts took effect Tuesday and will remain in place unless Hoskins determines the referendum petition is constitutional and contains sufficient signatures.’”

The Attorney General’s office claims the ACLU and People Not Politicians are promoting the false narrative, arguing that the freeze only happens when the signatures are validated by the Secretary of State. The office claims that at this time, it has not been confirmed that enough signatures have been submitted. Referendum petition signatures must equal to five percent of legal voters in each of two-thirds of the congressional districts in the state to pass.

“It does not matter how many total signatures have been submitted. All that matters is how many valid signatures have been submitted in each congressional district,” The office said in a statement Tuesday. “Until the Secretary of State confirms that the proposed referendum has enough valid signatures to qualify, the Missouri First Map will remain in effect.”

The office adds that if legislation is suspended at the receipt of signatures, “anyone [can] freeze duly-enacted state laws by dropping off boxes of unverified signatures.”

If active, the new congressional district map splits Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Fifth District in Kansas City into three. This will merge it with more rural and Republican areas, likely removing Cleaver’s seat and giving the Republican Party a boost in the next election.

The new districts will also affect candidate filing on Feb. 24 for the upcoming 2026 midterm election, with candidates needing a clear map to know what districts to file for and who they are representing.

“What they are doing is trying to eliminate the public from a public forum, what they are saying is, ‘we are the people who operate the state government and we don’t want these pesky citizens of the state of Missouri to cross over what we do when we do it.’” Cleaver said.

Cleaver adds that the uncertainty of the map is leaving voters concerned.

“They don’t know who they’re going to vote for, so they don’t know who to consider, they don’t know what kind of research they would do,” Cleaver said.

Cleaver also questioned the legality of redistricting, with the move falling in the middle of census years. Which was previously argued by a group of voters in a separate Cole County suit. The judge ultimately denied the voters’ arguments.

U.S. Rep. Mark Alford (R-Raytown) represents District 4, which will also be redrawn in the new map. In a statement on Monday, he reestablished his commitment to Missouri voters.

“Regardless of where the final lines fall, we will win the Fourth District,” Alford said.

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