Overview
- The court heard expedited arguments on Wednesday as justices repeatedly questioned lawyers defending Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and flagged that Hoskins did not include the text of Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s opinion in his certification of insufficiency.
- The justices must issue rulings by Sept. 8 to meet ballot‑printing and federal deadlines and those rulings will determine whether Proposition A appears on the Nov. 3 ballot and which district lines voters will use.
- Hoskins declared the redistricting referendum insufficient on Aug. 4, saying the Missouri and U.S. constitutions bar a statewide vote on congressional maps, and a Cole County judge later upheld that decision.
- A separate signature‑timing challenge was heard but is not dispositive because petitioners gathered more than 300,000 signatures and there is no dispute the referendum had enough valid signatures without the contested batch.
- The court also heard an appeal over Amendment 6, a proposal that would make it far harder to change voter‑initiated laws by requiring an 80% legislative vote plus statewide ratification and that would apply retroactively, a change with major consequences given Republican supermajorities in the legislature.