Yesterday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Missouri's latest gambit to plow ahead with a new gerrymandered congressional map. The state Supreme Court had ordered that map not be used in 2026 as a result of a ballot initiative effort mounted by the voters of Missouri.

Moments after the Supreme Court's order was released, as if on cue, a federal district court judge blocked the prior map from being used. The Republican Secretary of State then announced he would proceed with the new gerrymandered map that the state Supreme Court has blocked.

By the end of the day, emergency motions had been filed in nearly every court. As of this morning, we are awaiting decisions to see which map will be used.

Buried in the back-and-forth of motions last night was a clear-eyed order from Missouri's Chief Justice aimed at the GOP Secretary of State:

"Respondent Denny Hoskins is hereby ordered to show cause, if any, why he should not be held in contempt for violating this Court's injunction dated September 3, 2026, entered before the statutory deadline of September 8, 2026, and before the temporary restraining order entered by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri of that same date."

The immediate reaction of many observers is to declare this entire affair a mess. I reject that framing. This is not a mess. This is a willful act by a Republican officeholder who is hell-bent on using a gerrymandered map regardless of orders from his own high court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

It is emblematic of a Republican Party that does not just tolerate contempt but rewards it. Whether it is shipping migrants to foreign gulags, tearing down government buildings, hiding information from the public or rigging elections, the GOP celebrates the disregard for the rule of law and defiance of court orders.

According to the dictionary, contempt is a noun with three meanings:

1. A feeling of intense dislike for someone or something regarded as unworthy of respect or approval.
   
   
2. The state of being despised.
   
   
3. Willful disobedience to or open disrespect of a court, judge, or legislative body.

The Republican Party is guilty of all three.

It has contempt for its political opponents — a category that includes not only Democrats, but also career civil servants, leaders of civil society who refuse to bend to its will and judges who rule against it. Even other Republicans are treated with contempt if they fail to toe the party line 100% of the time.

Republicans have become hated and despised. Their poll numbers have plummeted. Their fealty to Donald Trump has made them a mockery. Yet they refuse to change course. Rather than altering their positions, they seem to suppress voting rights and rig maps.

They do not lament being hated; they revel in it as a sign of their purity. Their pseudo-intellectuals cite the teachings of autocrats. They quote Chapter 17 of Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince with approval — ignoring that two chapters later he warns rulers to "avoid being despised and hated."

It is the third definition of contempt, however, that is most dangerous. It is the source of the Missouri Supreme Court's justifiable anger.

Republicans have come to view adverse court rulings as simply the opening bid in an ongoing negotiation. They are not only disobedient of court orders, but they are also disrespectful to judges with whom they disagree.

Trump has famously attacked judges without legal consequences. But that attitude has filtered down to rank-and-file Republicans and government lawyers representing Republican officials. We see it every day in courtrooms. We read about it weekly in high-profile cases.

The question is what is to be done about the contemptuous Republican Party. Sadly, so far, the answer has been too little. Judges who express frustration soon move on. They continue to give the administration and other Republicans the benefit of the doubt — when none is deserved.

In the few instances where judges have tried to enforce contempt, higher courts have stood in their way. There has been no worse ruling for the respect of the rule of law and the judiciary than the Supreme Court's grant of near-absolute immunity to presidents.

No matter what happens next in Missouri, this is an opportunity for the state Supreme Court — a conservative court — to do what too few others have done: hold the Republican Secretary of State in contempt for defying its order.

In the meantime, my law firm is fighting this latest ruling head on, taking it back to the Supreme Court. Republicans started this redistricting war at Trump’s behest, but they won’t end it. As I’ve said before, the courts are democracy’s final guardrail. It’s time they start acting like it.