Missouri Supreme Court overturns Republican districting

The Supreme Court of the US state of Missouri has overturned a new redistricting drafted by the Republicans for the November congressional elections. The ruling is a setback for the party in its struggle to maintain its narrow majority in the US House of Representatives.

The decision could allow longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver to return to the House of Representatives. His constituency in Kansas City was dissolved as part of the redistricting.

The court found that the state's Republican secretary of state, Denny Hoskins, had unlawfully prevented a referendum on redistricting. Republican lawmakers pushed through the redistricting as part of a campaign supported by President Donald Trump to change the district boundaries in favor of their own candidates.

When a party in a state deliberately changes electoral district boundaries for its own benefit, Americans speak of gerrymandering, named after a former governor of Massachusetts. Elbridge Gerry and his party tailored a constituency to look like a salamander.

The method assumes that only the candidate with the most votes wins in each constituency (majority voting). A simple example: In a city consisting of five constituencies, party A wins three seats and party B wins two. By cleverly redesigning the five constituencies, it is possible for party A to suddenly have a majority in four or even all five constituencies and thus win four or five seats - without the voters having changed their vote.

Trump's Republicans are blatantly gerrymandering to secure their power. But the Democrats have also resorted to this measure, not least to at least partially compensate for the disadvantages for them. In California they were able to secure five additional seats.