The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled on three significant cases about the state’s new Congressional voting districts, voter ID, and voter registration laws.
In Tuesday’s decisions, the Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to back a lower court ruling the Missouri Legislature acted within its power last year to draw new Congressional voting boundaries. A group called People Not Politicians argued that lawmakers can only change districts once per decade, but the high court says the Constitution does not explicitly say that.
In a special session last September, Missouri Republicans passed a new Congressional map in hopes of helping their party gain control in Washington, D.C. after this November’s elections. The new version aims to make seven of Missouri’s Congressional districts Republican strongholds, including longtime Congressman Emanuel Cleaver’s, a Democrat from Kansas City.
In another ruling, the high court upheld a lower court’s ruling on the state’s voter ID requirements. The Supreme Court said the NAACP failed to show the requirements threaten to infringe on the ability to vote.
The Missouri Legislature passed a sweeping elections bill in 2022 that required a photo ID to vote, along with allowing voters two weeks of no-excuse early voting in person before Election Day.
Finally, the court sided 4-3 with a lower court decision ruling that a voter registration bill is unconstitutional. The League of Women Voters of Missouri and Missouri State Conference of the NAACP sued the state in response to House Bill 1878. The bill includes a ban on paying people to solicit voter registration applications, requiring solicitors to be Missouri voters and at least 18 years old, and prohibits the soliciting of voters to obtain absentee ballot applications.
For more background on the decisions, click here.
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