The ACLU of Missouri has filed a lawsuit over a new congressional map passed by the legislature on Friday that would split up the city and give Republicans a leg up ahead of next year's midterm elections.
And the city of Kansas City, Missouri, may soon join the legal challenge.
The Missouri Senate on Friday approved a map that deliberately carves up the Kansas City area into three separate districts, drawing Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II out of his 5th District seat. It would likely send an additional GOP lawmaker to Washington, D.C., leading to a 7-1 Republican delegation in Congress.
A lawsuit filed just hours later by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, on behalf of five voters, argues that the new map and the entire recent redistricting process is unconstitutional.
"Voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around," said Ming Cheung of the ACLU Voting Rights Project. "No matter how the state spins it, Kansas City voters will have worse representation in Congress if this map is allowed to take effect."
Response from Kansas City leaders
The Kansas City Council adopted a resolution on Thursday that opposes the Republican-led redistricting plan and authorizes the city attorney to take legal action against the new map.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said in a statement that Missouri legislators are silencing the voices of residents across the state.
"This gerrymander represents nothing more than a political attack orchestrated by Washington elites," Lucas said. "Make no mistake: this isn't about representing Missourians or defending our interests. It's about suppressing our voices, especially those of Kansas City residents."
Cleaver said in a statement that he's disappointed that Republican lawmakers ignored the voices of voters and instead "followed the marching orders dictated by power brokers in D.C."
"I want to be very clear to those who are frustrated by today's outcome: this fight is far from over," Cleaver continued. "Together, in the courts and in the streets, we will continue pushing to ensure the law is upheld, justice prevails, and this unconstitutional gerrymander is defeated."
Kansas City Council member Johnathan Duncan said it's a sad day for democracy in Missouri.
"I think they sent a very clear message about who they want to uplift and provide representation to, and who they want to remove and take away representation from," Duncan said. "It is not about representing all of America. It is about representing a very specific portion of America."
Duncan warned that the new maps might end up backfiring against Republicans seeking to increase their political power in Missouri.
"There is gerrymandering, and then there's dummy-mandering," Duncan said. " And I think the Republicans have dummy-mandered Missouri."
Missouri state Sen. Barbara Washington, a Democrat who represents east Kansas City, said the new maps are an attack on democracy.
"This isn't a bureaucratic exercise in map making," she said. "It's a blatant political attack on my community."
Washington said diversity is Kansas City's greatest strength.
"There is an area of Kansas City where on one corner, if you cross the street one way, you're in one district," she said of the new maps before the Senate passed them. "If you cross the street another way, you're in another district," she continued. "If you stand where you are, you're in another district."
Democratic state senator Maggie Nurrenbern, who represents Clay County, posted on X that "not a single person" testified in favor of the new maps.
"Republicans are hell-bent on silencing Missourians to hold on to their power," she said in the post.
Not a single person testified in favor of this bill yesterday. Not a single one. Republicans are hell-bent on silencing Missourians to hold on to their power. https://t.co/EWM19QYGkc
— Maggie Nurrenbern (@MaggieforMO) September 12, 2025
Elsa Rainey, a spokesperson for People Not Politicians Missouri, said the Missouri Senate ignored the thousands of Missourians who opposed the redistricting efforts.
"This is nothing less than an unconstitutional power grab — a blatant attempt to rig the 2026 elections before a single vote is cast," Rainey said in a statement. "It violates Missouri law, slices apart communities, and strikes at the core of our democratic system."
The group is beginning the process of gathering more than 100,000 signatures in at least six congressional districts, in order to put the new map up for a statewide vote. If they gather enough signatures in 90 days, the map won't take effect unless approved by Missouri voters.
Map is Trump-approved, but does it violate the constitution?
The mid-decade redistricting move closes out a contentious special session called by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, who is expected to give the so-called "Missouri First" map the final stamp of approval.
Usually, states redraw their districts early in the decade after the U.S. Census. But President Donald Trump set off a redistricting battle nationwide in July, first calling on Texas Republicans to redraw their map to help win five more seats in the 2026 midterms.
Democratic leaders in California are asking voters to back a plan that would give them an advantage in five seats, while Trump is calling on Indiana and Florida to join Missouri in strengthening Republican chances.
The ACLU of Missouri alleges the new map violates the state constitution, because redistricting can only occur once every decade. The lawsuit also lays out several ways in which the map "openly defies key constitutional requirements intended to keep the state's map-drawing process fair," including prohibiting non-compact districts.
Missouri Republicans have defended the maps by saying they align better with voter priorities. Republican state Rep. Dirk Deaton, who sponsored the House bill, said the new map is more compact and competitive than the one passed in 2022.
The new maps splinter Kansas City into the 4th, 5th and 6th districts, carving up the city's most diverse communities.
The map splits the 4th and 5th Congressional districts along Troost Avenue, a historic racial and economic dividing line. Majority Black neighborhoods east of Troost would be subsumed into the new 5th district that stretches all the way into middle Missouri, where communities are whiter and more rural.
The new 4th District includes all of Kansas City west of Troost Avenue to the Kansas state line, and reaches 150 miles south to Dade County.
The Historic Northeast, a growing diverse community of Black and brown immigrants and refugees, would be carved up into the three new districts. A portion of the area would be part of the new 6th district that stretches to Missouri's northern border.
Critics say the redrawing is a flagrant example of gerrymandering and would dilute the voting power of Black and brown residents in Kansas City. Earlier this week, thousands of Missourians packed the capitol in Jefferson City to express their opposition to the new maps.
Cleaver testified before a Missouri Senate committee on Thursday.
"I hope all of us understand that decades and decades will be damaged by what goes on here," he said. "In the last few years, chaos has been on the hunt. Hunting all over this country. And chaos has found us."
Cleaver said he still plans to run in the redrawn 5th District.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas told KCUR that he would consider running for the 4th District, a seat currently held by Republican Rep. Mark Alford, if the map passes.
"It is not my life's dream to actually be in the U.S. House," Lucas told KCUR's Up To Date. "I think being mayor is more fun. But on this one, no, we're not going to sit back. I expect us to battle for a 5-3 map. That would mean picking up Mark Alford's seat, keeping Emanuel Cleaver's seat, and, frankly, to field competitive candidates in the Northland seat that's currently held by Sam Graves."
U.S. House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement that Democrats will fight the "rigged congressional map" and that Republicans will "pay an electoral price next November."
"Bowing to the demands of Donald Trump, corrupt Missouri Republicans advanced their mid-decade gerrymandering scheme today to try and rig the midterm elections in order to salvage the weak GOP House majority," Jeffries said.
The Missouri legislature on Friday also passed a measure that would make it more difficult for Missourians to pass citizen-led constitutional amendments. That measure requires approval by voters, however.
Caitlyn Adams, executive director of Missouri Jobs With Justice Voter Action, urged voters to reject the measure.
"Rather than listening and respecting the will of the people, some politicians are rigging the rules to favor wealthy special interests and trick voters into giving up our power," Adams said in a statement. "It's up to us to come together and reject this on the ballot and show these politicians that the power of the people is greater than the people in power."
Legal challenges begin
The Missouri ACLU's lawsuit was filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, on behalf of five voters: Terrence Wise, Ashley Ball, Aimee Riederer Gromowsky, Cynthia Wrehe and Cynthia Kay Lakin. They are all Kansas City or Lee's Summit residents who lived in the 5th District under the original congressional map.
Another lawsuit filed Friday in Circuit Court in Cole County challenges the new congressional maps. It also seeks to block Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins from using the map to conduct a Congressional primary or general election.
That suit names four plaintiffs: Merrie Suzanne Luther of Cole County, Kim Randolph and Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan of Jackson County, and Kenneth Lawrence Chumbley of Greene County. Under the new maps, Luther, Randolph and Amezcua-Hogan would change Congressional districts. Luther previously announced a run for the Missouri House and Amezcua-Hogan is running for Kansas City Council.
Hoskins is named as the defendant.
The lawsuit argues that mid-decade redistricting without a new Census is unconstitutional, and that using 2020 Census data to draw new maps does not correctly account for the populations in each county.
The Missouri chapter of the NAACP filed a lawsuit earlier this month seeking to block the special session.
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