Lawsuit challenging Missouri congressional map calls out racial division of KC
A second group of Missouri voters has sued the state over the sprawling new congressional districts approved by the Senate on Friday to cap off a contentious special session.
The lawsuit was filed in Jackson County Circuit Court Friday afternoon on behalf of four Kansas City residents and one Lee’s Summit resident. They’re being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and the Campaign Legal Center.
Hours earlier, a lawsuit brought by four Missourians who would be drawn into new congressional districts under the GOP map was filed in Cole County.
The ACLU lawsuit alleges that the new map, which would divide progressive-leaning Kansas City into three Republican-friendly districts, violates the Missouri Constitution on several fronts.
For one, it argues, the state Constitution only allows for congressional redistricting every 10 years after the completion of the U.S. Census.
“The Missouri Constitution does not authorize the redrawing of congressional districts in any other circumstance or at any other time,” the lawsuit says, noting that the Constitution treats redistricting for state-level legislative seats differently.
Those, the Constitution says, can be redistricted “as public convenience may require.”
The 46-page lawsuit also alleges that the new map ignores a provision of the Constitution requiring districts to be “as compact … as may be.” It calls specific attention to how the redrawn 4th Congressional District protrudes into the western edge of Kansas City along the de facto racial dividing line created by Jim Crow-era housing discrimination.
“The eastern boundary of this bizarre giraffe-neck appendage — which forms the border between CDs 4 and 5 — follows Holmes Road and Troost Avenue, the historic and current segregating line between Kansas City’s Black and white urban residents,” the lawsuit says.
“The boundary between CDs 4 and 5 only shifts west from Troost Avenue to Holmes Road at the point (around 67th Street) where the precincts just west of Troost Avenue contain substantial Black populations, ensuring that predominantly white precincts are assigned to CD 4 while predominantly Black precincts are confined to CD 5.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently ruled that racial gerrymandering is illegal. The new map’s boundaries, the suit alleges, “cannot be explained by partisan motivations” and must be understood through the racial division it would create.
In an ACLU press release, plaintiff Terrence Wise said he and other Kansas City residents deserve to be represented by someone who understands their city’s complicated history.
“Voting is an important tool in our toolbox, so that we have the freedom to make our voices heard through a member of Congress who understands Kansas City’s history of racial and economic segregation along the Troost divide, and represents our needs,” Wise said.
What does the lawsuit aim to accomplish?
The lawsuit names as defendants the state of Missouri, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, and each of the directors and members of the Jackson County Board of Election Commissioners and the Kansas City Board of Election Commissioners.
Plaintiffs include Wise, Ashley Ball, Aimee Riederer Gromowsky, Cynthia Wrehe and Cynthia Kay Larkin.
The plaintiffs are asking a Jackson County judge to issue a declaratory judgment blocking the map from being used in any future elections.
“In a blatant, illegal and unconstitutional power grab, the governor bowed to the whims of Washington while sacrificing representation in both urban and rural populations of Missouri,” said Gillian Wilcox, director of litigation at the ACLU of Missouri.
“The splitting of Kansas City into three separate congressional districts will not only diminish representation of a major population center but will leave smaller rural towns’ interest to compete against the interest of residents of the KC metropolitan area.”
The Missouri chapter of the NAACP filed its own lawsuit last week, alleging that Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe’s call for a special session was unconstitutional because redrawing congressional districts and overhauling the initiative petition process did not qualify as an “extraordinary occasion.”
The bill authorizing the new map now awaits Kehoe’s signature. Barring court intervention, it will then go into effect in 90 days, unless anti-gerrymandering organizers can collect enough signatures to force a statewide referendum.
