This is the third time that the Supreme Court has decided this question on the emergency docket. The Court had some words for the 8th circuit panel that necessitated this decision.

But on September 21, 11 days after this Court’s most recent order, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ordered the District Court to enter a permanent injunction in effect requiring use of the 2025 map instead of the 2022 map in the 2026 election. Given this Court’s two prior orders in this litigation, our conclusion that this was error should come as no surprise.2

The final two sentences are also extremely blunt by Supreme Court standards. (Also, notice the belt-and-suspenders wording: do not prohibit, and do not require).

The District Court and Court of Appeals should not enjoin or otherwise prohibit the use of the 2022 map in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri. And the District Court and Court of Appeals should not order or otherwise require Missouri to use the 2025 map in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri.