NAACP sues to block Missouri governor's 'unconstitutional' gerrymandering plan

Kacen Bayless, The Kansas City Star on Sep 3, 2025

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Missouri chapter of the NAACP on Wednesday sued to block a Republican attempt to gerrymander the state’s congressional map.

The lawsuit, filed in Cole County, marks the first legal challenge aimed at halting a special legislative session designed to carve up the Kansas City region and overhaul the state’s initiative petition process.

It came roughly an hour after the Republicans gaveled in for the first day of the session, intent on addressing both issues over the next two weeks.

The suit argues that Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe’s decision to call lawmakers into the session was unconstitutional and asks a judge to block the effort. It alleges that mid-decade redistricting and the petition overhaul do not qualify as an “extraordinary occasion.”

“Although the question of what an ‘extraordinary occasion’ under the Missouri Constitution has not been tested in the Courts, no governor has ever before convened the legislature based on similar facts,” the lawsuit said.

The NAACP filed the lawsuit along with two Missouri residents, Patricia Jones from Kansas City and Traci Wilson-Kleekamp from Columbia.

It names as defendants four Republican statewide officials and lawmakers: Kehoe, Attorney General Andrew Bailey, House Speaker Jonathan Patterson from Lee’s Summit and Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin from Shelbina.

Wednesday’s suit is likely the first of several legal actions filed against the effort. Legal experts have argued for weeks that the Missouri Constitution bars lawmakers from redrawing the state’s congressional districts mid-cycle, putting the state at risk of losing a long, drawn-out legal fight.

Emails obtained by The Star showed that top Missouri officials weighed the legality of the move late last month.

The legal action comes a day before lawmakers are scheduled to hold a pair of hearings on redistricting and the initiative overhaul.

Kehoe’s order, which came in a Friday afternoon proclamation, plunged Missouri into a national redistricting fight led by the Trump administration.

In a move that surprised some, the Republican governor’s proclamation also called on lawmakers to weaken the state’s initiative petition process, a more than a century-old mechanism for direct democracy that allows citizens to put measures on the ballot.

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