Missouri Supreme Court to hear appeal in Senate district map challenge

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (WGEM) – The Missouri Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Thursday in a case challenging the layout of the state’s Senate districts.

The case against the Secretary of State’s office was brought by two Missouri citizens who claimed the map, drawn-up by a six-judge commission, is unconstitutional. The challengers want the court to rule the map so, and block the state from using it in the upcoming elections.

At the center of the challenge are the standards used to separate the state into districts containing a comparable number of constituents.

Any difference in the number of constituents between one district and another is not supposed to be more than one-percent, unless a deviation is made to keep a district lined up with county or city borders.

The map produced by the judicial commission split Buchanan County in to District 12 and District 34, and split the city of Hazelwood into District 13 and District 14, utilizing that deviation.

A circuit court sided with the Secretary of State’s office and the Supreme Court will now consider whether the lower court made a mistake in evaluating the judicial commission’s choices and whether they were “reasonable,” as the law dictates.

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