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MO Supreme Court hears challenge to new congressional maps

The Mid-Missouri portion of the "Grand Compromise Map."
The Mid-Missouri portion of the "Grand Compromise Map."

The Missouri Supreme Court heard three lawsuits Thursday that seek to erase new maps drawn during last year’s redistricting processes.

Two of the three suits target the new Congressional district map passed by lawmakers. Both of those cases argue that congressional districts in the so-called “Grand Compromise Map” don’t meet the compactness requirement and were drawn to protect incumbents. 

Gerry Greiman argued for the plaintiffs in one of two lawsuits against the map.  He says like-minded people should be joined together in the same district.

 “That’s why the 5th District is so bad, because you take urban Jackson County and you join with them three largely rural counties that may have very little in common with them…on the other side of the state, Jefferson County, which has about 200-thousand people; it’s split into three different congressional districts,” Greiman said.

Solicitor General Jim Layton defended the maps, and suggested that safeguarding an incumbent’s district is not necessarily illegal.  He used southeast Missouri Congresswoman Jo Anne Emerson as an example.

“They kept Ms. Emerson’s district largely intact…she’s 115th in seniority and a member of the majority party…that is a rational basis for drawing a district in that regard,” Layton said.

The state’s High Court also heard a lawsuit against the new State Senate district map.  It’s being challenged because a 6-judge panel that drew it issued a revised version.  Plaintiffs say it’s not valid because the panel automatically dissolved after issuing its first map.  The State Supreme Court will rule on the new maps later.

Missouri Public Radio State House Reporter Marshall Griffin is a proud alumnus of the University of Mississippi (a.k.a., Ole Miss), and has been in radio for over 20 years, starting out as a deejay. His big break in news came when the first President Bush ordered the invasion of Panama in 1989. Marshall was working the graveyard shift at a rock station, and began ripping news bulletins off the old AP teletype and reading updates between songs. From there on, his radio career turned toward news reporting and anchoring. In 1999, he became the capital bureau chief for Florida's Radio Networks, and in 2003 he became News Director at WFSU-FM/Florida Public Radio. During his time in Tallahassee he covered seven legislative sessions, Governor Jeb Bush's administration, four hurricanes, the Terri Schiavo saga, and the 2000 presidential recount. Before coming to Missouri, he enjoyed a brief stint in the Blue Ridge Mountains, reporting and anchoring for WWNC-AM in Asheville, North Carolina. Marshall lives in Jefferson City with his wife, Julie, their dogs, Max and Mason, and their cat, Honey.