Missouri Republican lawmakers seem to have all the leverage to gerrymander congressional districts in September, with the explicitly partisan aim of making it difficult for Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver to win reelection. But if they succeed, it could unleash a torrent of legal and political consequences.

At the beginning of July, the prospect that Missouri lawmakers would return to Jefferson City in the fall to redraw their congressional map seemed ludicrous.

Missouri Republicans were just a couple of years removed from a bitter and divisive legislative session in which redrawing the state's eight congressional districts exacerbated existing tensions . And states typically don't engage in redistricting in the middle of the decade without some sort of judicial order.

But Pre

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