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The Missouri supreme court blocked a Republican-drawn new congressional map ⁠from being used in November’s midterm ⁠elections, a blow to the party’s ​odds for maintaining its narrow US House majority.

The ruling could save the House seat of longtime Democratic U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver. His Kansas City-based district had been dismantled under the redrawn map.

“Despite the cynical and deeply shameful attempt to silence many of our neighbors, the people fought back and won,” Cleaver said in a social media post on Thursday.

The decision marked a setback for Republicans in a national redistricting battle, AP reported, as Republicans had hoped Missouri’s new congressional boundaries could help them win an additional seat and hold on to their slim House majority in the midterms.

“The referendum petition was legal, sufficient, and timely, and the secretary incorrectly concluded otherwise,” the court said in its ruling. The legislation containing the new districts “did not go into effect and will not go into effect unless and until approved by the voters.”

As a result, the congressional map adopted after the 2020 census “remains in full force and effect for the November 2026 general election.”

Missouri attorney general Catherine Hanaway, a Republican, said she would immediately appeal to the US supreme court, asserting that the decision “has thrust our state into a full‑fledged constitutional crisis.”

Meanwhile, Missouri governor Mike Kehoe, a Republican who backed the redrawn map, said on X: “We are extremely disappointed in today’s decision by unelected judges and their lack of respect for the legislative process.”

Trump condemned the ruling in a post on Truth Social, saying it was “a Dark Day for ’Justice’ in Missouri!”.

But Richard von Glahn, executive ⁠director of People Not Politicians, told reporters that “the Missouri constitution says what it says, and those words matter.”

He added: “This is what democracy looks like. The people of Missouri demanded a voice, and the court just confirmed what we’ve been saying all along. People, not politicians, will have the final say.”

In other developments:

• The Trump administration filed an emergency request asking the US supreme court to lift order blocking USPS from implementing mail-in voting restrictions. Chuck Schumer said the president was “[attempting] to destroy the integrity of our elections” with the move.

• Excavation work on Donald Trump’s “Great Triumphal Arch” project in Washington is set to begin in the coming weeks, interior secretary Doug Burgum said. Congressman Don Beyer, whose district includes Arlington National Cemetery, described the arch project as “illegal, gridlock-increasing [and] narcissistic”.

• Maryland’s supreme court has decided that a Democrat-backed congressional redistricting amendment can go before voters in the state in November in a win for Democrats.

• Donald Trump announced an interim replacement for army secretary, Dan Driscoll, who suddenly resigned earlier this week amid reports of tension between him and defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

• Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass has been asked to testify before a congressional subcommittee as part of an investigation into the “potential misallocation” of federal funds by the region’s Homeless Services Authority. Congressman Robert Garcia described the move as “another attempt by Donald Trump and House Republicans to launch a witch-hunt against Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles.”