Missouri Supreme Court upholds assigned voting districts for state Senate – Winnipeg Free Press

Jefferson City, Mo. (AP) – A divided Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the state Senate's assigned voting districts, rejecting a legal challenge that mapmakers should focus more on preserving communities.

The Supreme Court's 5-2 ruling means that the districts used for the first time in the 2022 election will remain in place for this year's election and the next.

The case was one of about a dozen still pending across the country after the 2020 census that challenged state legislative or congressional boundaries.

Most of those battles have pitted Democrats against Republicans as each party tries to draw districts in their favor, but the Missouri lawsuit has split the GOP into two camps.

While the Republican Senate committee supported the Senate map passed by a panel of appeals court judges in 2022, the House GOP committee supported Democratic voters who filed a lawsuit to overturn the districts.

The lawsuit argued that mapmakers should not have divided western Missouri's Buchanan County or the St. Louis suburb of Hazelwood into multiple districts.

On this issue, the 2020 constitutional amendment revised the redistricting criteria approved by voters. According to the Supreme Court, the trial judge correctly ruled that the constitution prioritizes “compact” districts over keeping communities within counties intact.