Case: Wise v. Missouri

This case challenges Missouri’s 2025 congressional redistricting plan under the Missouri Constitution, alleging violations of provisions governing mid-decade redistricting, compactness, equal population, and contiguity.

On September 12, 2025, a group of Missouri voters filed a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, against the State of Missouri, the Secretary of State, and local election authorities, including the Jackson County Board of Election Commissioners and the Kansas City Board of Election Commissioners, challenging the state’s newly enacted 2025 congressional redistricting plan. Represented by public interest organizations, including the ACLU and Campaign Legal Center, the plaintiffs alleged that the 2025 plan violated Article III, Section 45 of the Missouri Constitution. Specifically, they argued that the legislature lacked authority to redraw congressional districts mid-decade, that the new districts were not “as compact as may be,” and that the plan violated requirements of equal population and contiguity. The plaintiffs sought declaratory relief, a preliminary and permanent injunction preventing the use of the 2025 map in elections, and a declaration that the 2022 map remained the lawful redistricting plan.

The plaintiffs alleged that the 2025 redistricting effort was undertaken in response to political pressure to increase Republican representation and was intended to dismantle Congressional District 5, which had historically encompassed much of the Kansas City metropolitan area and elected a Democratic representative. Under the 2025 plan, Kansas City was split across multiple districts and combined with distant rural areas, which, plaintiffs argued, fractured communities of interest and reduced compactness. The complaint also alleged a technical defect in the legislation that purportedly assigned a single voting precinct to multiple districts, resulting in population imbalance and noncontiguous districts.

A related case, Healey v. State, raising similar claims, was filed on September 28, 2025, and later consolidated with this action. The Missouri Republican State Committee was permitted to intervene as a defendant. The court stayed proceedings on the claim challenging the legislature’s authority to conduct mid-decade redistricting pending resolution of a similar issue before the Missouri Supreme Court in a separate case.

A bench trial was held from February 17 to February 20, 2026, on the remaining claims, including compactness, equal population, and contiguity. At trial, plaintiffs’ experts argued that the 2025 map fragmented Kansas City and that the districts could have been drawn in a more compact manner. Defendants' experts presented statistical evidence showing that the 2025 plan was comparable to or more compact than prior Missouri congressional maps and improved adherence to other traditional redistricting principles, such as reducing county and municipal splits.

On March 12, 2026, the court ruled in favor of the defendants on all claims before it, holding that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the 2025 plan “clearly and undoubtedly” violated the Missouri Constitution. The court found that the plan satisfied the requirements of compactness, equal population, and contiguity, emphasizing that compactness does not require maximizing geographic cohesion and that the legislature may balance multiple redistricting considerations. The court also rejected the alleged precinct-assignment error, finding that the map as implemented did not create population inequality or noncontiguous districts.

The court denied all requested declaratory and injunctive relief and allowed the 2025 congressional plan to remain in effect. The claim challenging the legislature’s authority to conduct mid-decade redistricting remained unresolved and stayed pending further proceedings.

As of March 2026, the case remains ongoing with respect to the unresolved mid-decade redistricting claim.