Mo. court upholds challenges to redistricting maps

Plaintiffs challenging Missouri’s new Congressional and State Senate maps are celebrating.

First, the State Supreme Court has tossed out the new State Senate district map drawn up by a six-judge panel last year, ruling that the panel didn’t have the authority to revise the map it issued in late November. 

The ruling amounts to a complete do-over for the State Senate, as the governor will have to appoint another citizens’ commission to draw a new map. 

House Speaker Steven Tilley Tuesday called the judicial process for drawing the Senate map a debacle:

“To issue a map, (then) a couple of days later issue another map, I mean, to say that they shouldn’t be subject to the Sunshine Law, all these things I think have been an embarrassment.”

Missouri’s High Court also sent the state’s new congressional map back to a trial judge for further review, to resolve whether it meets the compactness requirement. 

Tilley says he believes that map will be upheld.