JEFFERSON CITY — Media and lawyers packed into a small courtroom on the fourth floor of the Cole County Courthouse on Tuesday as Judge Brian Stumpe heard arguments regarding the use of the gerrymandered congressional map passed by the legislature last fall.

The question at the heart of the lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of some state residents, is: What is the status of the map enacted by House Bill 1 after the citizen group called People Not Politicians submitted a referendum petition with over 300,000 signatures?

Plaintiffs argue that the map was suspended when People Not Politicians submitted the referendum petition with a required number of signatures and it remains suspended until the petition is deemed ineligible by the secretary of state or the map is voted on by the state’s voters.

“We have very helpful Missouri Supreme Court cases, we have the text of the constitution, we have what prior secretaries of state and attorneys general have done, and all of that is consistent with the plaintiffs’ position,” said Jonathan Hawley, who represents one of the plaintiffs.

Defendants are attempting to argue the case on multiple fronts. First, they argue that the map can be used until and unless voters reject it.

“It’s one thing to say a minority can freeze the law. But what plaintiffs are saying is we should just assume that when a minority drops a pile of signatures, we should allow that minority to freeze the law without double checking,” defense attorney Louis Capozzi said.

The other argument the defense put forth is a judicial estoppel defense.

The defense argued that the state was successful in defending the use of the map in a separate case. They argued the plaintiffs’ attempt to bring this case forward is a deliberate attempt to gain an advantage by making the same arguments against the map in front of another judge. In their arguments, they tried to connect a separate case filed by People Not Politicians to the one heard Tuesday, speculating that the plaintiffs are funded by the same donor, which the plaintiffs deny.

“We know that People Not Politicians’ executive director and People Not Politicians’ attorney publicly promised that a lawsuit would be brought, arguing that HB1 was frozen by the mere submission of an unverified referendum petition,” defense co-council Michael Patton said.

Stumpe did not say when he would rule. Plaintiffs have asked for an expedited process because candidates can start filing their papers on Feb. 24 to run for election next fall.

The People Not Politicians group contends they collected more than enough signatures to hold a vote on newly gerrymandered maps in the fall. But that separate case is being held in abeyance until the signatures have been verified or rejected by the secretary of state. That is expected to take months, as signatures have to be verified as qualified voters by county clerks across the state.

People Not Politicians case

A separate Cole County circuit court judge is holding a case review Feb. 17 in a lawsuit filed by People Not Politicians over the handling of their referendum petition by Secretary of State Denny Hoskins.

At the time of filing, just weeks after the legislature approved the map, the petition held more than 300,000 votes. On its face, that is more than the “106,384 signatures across six congressional districts” needed to delay the maps from being used in 2026 before a vote can be held on them, according to the initial lawsuit.

The petition, filed by plaintiff Richard von Glahn, is being considered on the basis that Missourians reserve the “power to approve or reject by referendum any act of the general assembly,” as outlined in article III of the Missouri Constitution.

After a hearing on Dec. 12, Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh ordered the case be held in abeyance until the requisite number of signatures had been certified or enough signatures had been rejected to keep it off the ballot. As of Jan. 5, 33,068 pages had been deemed valid and submitted to local election authorities with no memorandum since then.

Adding to the confusion, Hoskins is holding back some 100,000 of the signatures gathered on the petition because they were collected before he approved the form of the petition.

The gerrymandered map, designed to flip one seat in the U.S. House of Representatives to the GOP, was forced through the Missouri House and Senate during a special session in September.

President Donald Trump has been encouraging Republican-led states to redraw their congressional maps, and requested that the Missouri Senate approve it in a social media post in September.

“This new Map will give the wonderful people of Missouri the opportunity to elect an additional MAGA Republican in the 2026 Midterm Elections,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The Missouri Senate must pass this Map now, AS IS, to deliver a gigantic Victory for Republicans in the ‘Show Me State.’”