“Tonight in Your Rights” unpacks the day’s legal news with a focus on the actions of individuals, organizations and civil society behind the cases that shape our democracy.
This newsletter focuses on the Missouri group that just defeated a gerrymander.
Exactly one year ago, a then-newly formed advocacy group called People Not Politicians MO gathered massive protests outside and inside the state capitol in opposition to a plan to redraw congressional maps before the midterms.
“We hosted what was the largest rally in the history of Missouri at our state capitol to tell the politicians ‘no’ to rigging our elections,” the group’s executive director Richard von Glahn reflected in an interview with All Rise News. “I remember when we were setting that up, I was hopeful that we might mobilize three to five hundred people in our state capital and over 5,000 people came and just overwhelmed the building.”
On Thursday, the group defeated the gerrymandered maps on the anniversary of those protests in a resounding fashion.
First, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling leaving the previous maps in place for the foreseeable future. There were no noted dissents, and the timing of the decision effectively nullified any attempt to use the newly redistricted maps before the upcoming midterm election.
Then, the Supreme Court of Missouri found that Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Donald Trump-aligned official who flouted its initial ruling, “was in contempt” — but purged the contempt by finally admitting defeat and instructing local election authorities to use the 2022 electoral maps.
Van Glahn called it “poetic justice” for the back-to-back rulings to land on the same day of those demonstrations.
“They didn’t listen that day, but I think they’re listening now,” he told All Rise News, referring to Missouri’s powers-that-be.
‘Political pawns’
The path of the litigation was as circuitous as the nullified maps, absurdly drawn to give Republicans an additional seat through an anticipated 7-1 split.
“This gerrymander was going to take the Kansas City congressional district and divide it into thirds: So you would have the people of northern Kansas City in the same congressional district with the cattle farmers on the Iowa-Illinois border over 250 miles away,” von Glahn explained. “The central part of Kansas City would be in the same district as students at Mizzou, over 100 miles away, and then the southern part of Kansas City would be all the way down towards the Arkansas border.”
Many observers — including Missouri lawmakers — saw this as a racist attack on Black voting power in the most diverse parts of Kansas City, but von Glahn noted that the gerrymandered maps would also have turned rural voters into “political pawns.”
That awareness helped People Not Politicians form a cross-partisan coalition whose overarching goal was protecting mechanisms for direct democracy enshrined in Missouri’s state constitution.
“When the people ratified the Constitution, we reserved the ability to do a citizen veto on any act of the Missouri General Assembly — with exceptions for emergency or appropriations,” von Glahn noted. “Congressional redistricting is not an emergency, and it's not an appropriation.”
Citizens can only exercise that veto power by gathering roughly 110,000 signatures spread across the state for a referendum on a 90-day timeline, which the organization accomplished in the face of stiff resistance.
“We have had dark money organizations come in and bribe canvassers, offer them tens of thousands of dollars not to collect signatures, threaten our volunteers, [and] threaten ourselves personally,” von Glahn said, referring to a social media post by Donald Trump Jr. calling him a “Leftist nut job.”
Those attacks failed: People Not Politicians eventually gathered more than 300,000 signatures, easily forcing a referendum on House Bill 1, the Missouri GOP-backed legislation behind the redistricting.
On Sept. 3, the Supreme Court of Missouri unanimously agreed that the state’s constitution left no uncertainty about the consequences of that accomplishment, finding that the redistricting “did not go into effect and will not go into effect unless and until approved by the voters.”
Missouri voters will now decide on that referendum, known as Proposition A, on Nov. 3.
‘One of the doubters’
Last week’s decision should have ended the matter, but it didn’t.
Missouri’s Secretary of State Hoskins and Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, both reliably MAGA-aligned operatives, fought to reinstate HB 1 in federal court and won rulings in their favor in the lower court and intermediate court of appeals.
Before waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve the contradictory rulings, Secretary of State Hoskins started instructing local election authorities to use the same maps that the Supreme Court of Missouri found had never been valid. On Thursday, Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court W. Brent Powell found that Hoskins “was in contempt” of the Sept. 3 order.
“However, the civil contemnor has at all times the power to purge himself of any contempt by complying with the order of this court,” Powell said from the bench. “The court finds that the secretary has since corrected his contemptuous conduct.”
Before launching his battle against the redistricted maps, von Glahn questioned whether the issue would resonate in the Show Me State.
“I was actually one of the doubters, and the community showed me I was wrong,” he said.
Standing-room-only town halls and packed protests persuaded von Glahn that the message would resonate, and it’s been an emotional journey to victory.
“I've actually cried twice this week: once when we won at the Supreme Court the first time, and then again this morning when we won the second time,” he said.
With growing cynicism and fatalism surrounding U.S. institutions — particularly related to gerrymandering and the Supreme Court — von Glahn urged the public to find confidence in the political power held by themselves and their communities.
“This was a coalition — of yes, Democrats, but independents and Republicans, as well — that said, ‘We want to stand up for our community and for a fair process in our community,’” he said. “I believe those are deeply-held American values, and when we can step outside the politics of the Beltway or of Twitter, and we can engage our neighbors as our neighbors and our friends, we can stand up for a democracy that actually respects all of us and centers all of our voices.”
Watch our full interview later this week on the All Rise News playlist on Legal AF.
Thanks for bringing the good news, Adam. A lot of grassroots work went into this victory. That’s what it’s going to take! We’re just getting out of the gate. The “Show Me” state is showing the way back to democracy. Giddyup!
Great report, Adam, and a good result due to a lot of hard work by people like you.