Missouri's marathon fight over which congressional map will govern the November midterms is racing toward a Monday deadline, after opponents of the state's Republican-drawn districts asked the Supreme Court to intervene for a third time in three weeks — and Justice Brett Kavanaugh gave state officials just hours to respond.

The emergency appeal, filed late Tuesday night by the group People Not Politicians, asks the justices to again block a map that would hand Republicans seven of Missouri's eight U.S. House seats, up from six. The map, redrawn by the GOP-controlled legislature in 2025 at President Trump's urging, dismantles the Kansas City-based 5th District long held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, according to NBC News.

The filing came hours after the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Missouri must use the 2025 map in November — but the appellate panel stayed its own order until 5 p.m. CDT on Sept. 28, carving out a narrow window for the Supreme Court to have the final word, as SCOTUSblog reported.

A real clock, not a hypothetical one

That leaves the justices racing an actual election calendar. Absentee and in-person early voting already began Sept. 23 under the older 2022 map, and county clerks say ballots have been printed and mailed under those lines. In their filing, the challengers argued that switching maps again now would sow chaos at the polls.

"BALLOTS USING THE 2022 MAP HAVE BEEN PRINTED AND MAILED, AND ABSENTEE VOTING, BOTH BY MAIL AND IN-PERSON, BEGAN TODAY. THOSE BALLOTS CANNOT BE REASSIGNED TO NEW DISTRICTS NOW."

Friday's appeal is Missouri redistricting's third trip to the high court since Sept. 10, when the justices first paused a lower-court ruling and kept the 2022 lines in place — a decision that came with no noted dissents. The case has bounced between courts for months: the Missouri Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Sept. 3 that a voter referendum on the new map must appear on the November ballot and ordered the 2022 map restored in the interim, while federal courts have sided the other way on procedural grounds, arguing that using different maps for the August primary and the November general election raises its own constitutional problems, per KCUR.

The stakes go beyond Missouri. The state's map is one piece of a broader mid-decade redistricting push Trump encouraged Republican-led legislatures to undertake this year, aimed at padding the GOP's razor-thin House majority ahead of a midterm cycle in which control of the chamber is very much in play. More than a million Missouri voters could see their congressional district change depending on which map ultimately stands, and referendum organizers say the confusion risks disenfranchising voters who already cast ballots.

Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and the map's Republican defenders counter that using one map for the primary and a different one for the general election is itself unconstitutional, and that the 8th Circuit's reasoning — that consistency protects voters' choices — should prevail. Kavanaugh, who has handled the emergency requests in this case, ordered Hoskins and the congressional candidates who sued to file responses by early Wednesday afternoon, and the full court has not yet ruled, according to Fox News.

Unless the Supreme Court steps in before the 8th Circuit's stay lifts at 5 p.m. CDT on Sept. 28, Missouri will be required to run November's election on the new seven-district Republican map — even as the underlying referendum on that same map remains on the ballot for voters to decide. A ruling could come at any time in the next several days.