Oral arguments to be heard in court over congressional map battle

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Oral arguments are set for Thursday morning over a temporary restraining order issued by a U.S. District Judge blocking the state from using the 2022 congressional map.

Secretary of State Hoskins is currently facing several legal battles, including the ongoing fight over Missouri’s congressional maps, in which the Missouri Supreme Court found him in contempt after he directed local election officials to use the 2025 map in violation of the court’s order. The court later found that Hoskins had purged the contempt after reversing course and directing officials to use the 2022 map.

On Tuesday, Hoskins filed an appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, urging the court to rule that a referendum cannot suspend a congressional map passed by the Legislature and that switching maps after the primary elections violates the U.S. Constitution.

Oral arguments are expected to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday via video conference. They are open to the public.

“I'm not going to speculate on what exactly the 8th Judicial Circuit does. But what I will say is, as of today, as of right now, the only court order that I have is from the Missouri Supreme Court to use the 2022 maps,” Hoskins told ABC 17 News Wednesday when asked how confident he was that the state could use the new 2025 congressional maps. “Could that change tomorrow? Well, [it] certainly could, but I'm not going to speculate.”

The live audio portion of the argument can be heard by dialing 1-571-353-2301 and using access Code 998735415.

The court will post the recorded audio after the argument is complete here.