Federal judge rules Missouri can use GOP-friendly map in midterms for now after Supreme Court declines to hear case

A federal district court judge in Missouri on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Show-Me State from using an older congressional map in the midterm elections, granting Republicans a victory after the Supreme Court declined to take up the case. The 14-day temporary restraining order issued by District Judge Stephen Clark, an appointee of President Trump, requires Missouri to use the Republican-friendly map approved by the legislature and signed into law by GOP Gov.Mike Kehoe last year while the Eastern District court hears arguments in the case. Clark’s ruling came minutes after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles cases from Missouri, declined to take up an emergency appeal filed by state GOP officials urging the high court to overrule the Missouri Supreme Court – which ruled last week that the new map cannot be used in November despite already having been used for the state primary elections. “I’m very very pleased with the results.

I think Judge Clark got it right,” Rep.Bob Onder (R-Mo.), who filed the lawsuit in the district court last week, told The Post. Onder argued that the state Supreme Court order forcing a map switch two months out from Election Day –  after “1.2 million Missourians have chosen their Democrat or their Republican candidates” in the primaries – left the state in a “constitutional crisis” and “absurd situation.” The flurry of legal rulings and decisions has sparked some confusion about which map will be in place come November. Onder and state GOP officials say they’ll follow Clark’s order in the Eastern District and will use the 2025 map that gives Republicans a new advantage in one House seat. “A temporary restraining order means that Judge Clark has decided that when the case goes forward in his court, he believes that the plaintiffs,  Rick Brattin and I, would prevail on the merits,” the congressman said.

“So, needless to say, I’m very confident that if there were a full hearing a...