Missouri Court Trims Anti-Gerrymandering Referendum

0:00A Missouri Appeals Court just stripped out two key claims from the ballot summary for an anti-Jerrymandering referendum. They said there was no proof that the new Congressional MAP lawmakers passed last summer, splits fewer cities, or looks more compact than the old one. This comes after another court-arty-yank language calling the original MAP, Jerrymandered to protect incumbents. The referendum, pushed by people non-politicians, aims to scrap the Republican-drawn MAP that carves of Kansas City into three GOP-leaning districts, to boot out Democratic rep Emanuel Cleaver. The group says they've gathered plenty of signatures to hit the November ballot. Lawmakers went after Cleaver hard, and some have even eyed splitting St. Louis the same way, especially after the Supreme Court weakened parts of the Boating Rights Act. Missouri joined Texas and others in mid-decade redistricting at Trump's Nudge, netting extra Republican seats nationwide, while Democrats flipped some, in blue states. Now, more drama brews, with two big cases hitting the Missouri Supreme Court on May 16th.

1:05One from the ACLU challenges the MAP's compactness, and another could freeze it until voters decide on the referendum, potentially leaving elections. In limbo, since candidate deadlines passed. That ruling locks in the ballot language for now, but these court fights could still flip the script on Missouri's districts heading into 20. 28. Stay tuned as this redistricting chess game plays out. That's your update from Kansas News Today, powered by AI.