Missouri redistricting

People Not Politicians sued after Secretary of State Denny Hoskins said he wouldn’t count signatures collected before Oct. 14.

Opponents of the new map contended that lawmakers couldn’t engage in mid-decade redistricting. But a Cole County judge ruled there's no explicit prohibition on the practice.

While a federal court decision Monday gives Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins the chance to reject the referendum, backers of the plan aren’t expecting that move to hold up in state court.

Attorneys for People Not Politicians said in court Monday that a judge should rule against Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ actions on the proposed congressional redistricting referendum.

The federal case is one of multiple legal battles over the mid-decade redistricting.

The group People Not Politicians is gathering signatures to prevent a new redistricting plan from going into effect.

A three-judge federal panel struck down Texas’ new congressional map on racial gerrymandering grounds. Challenges to Missouri’s map don’t involve the same type of claim.

The Republican National Committee is targeting voters to remove their names from a referendum petition.

The court filing also may signal the end of a decades-long alliance between Black Democrats and Republicans on how the St. Louis-area district has been drawn.

Advocacy group People Not Politicians has until mid-December to collect more than 100,000 signatures across six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts. The lawsuit may help decide whether 90,000 collected in September and early October are valid.