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.
