Skip to the story
All stories

Federal judge allows Missouri contempt hearing in redistricting dispute

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins faces a hearing over congressional district maps backed by Donald Trump.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
In this photo taken with a smartphone, people opposed to a congressional redistricting plan rally outside the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo., Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb) (David A. Lieb, Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

What this story says

  • A federal judge has allowed Missouri's Supreme Court to proceed with a contempt hearing for Secretary of State Denny Hoskins.
  • The hearing stems from a dispute over new congressional districts favoured by President Donald Trump.
  • Missouri's top court had previously ordered Hoskins not to use the Trump-backed map.
  • The contempt hearing is scheduled as the U.S. Supreme Court reviews a request to halt the federal judge's order.

Who covered it

Left 29%(2)Centre 71%(5)Right 0%(0)

Percentages are shares of the 7 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .

Trust

60/100

Craft

70/100

Hype

10/100

7 sources · methodology

Thin on the right so far

None of the 7 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

A federal judge has permitted Missouri's Supreme Court to hold a contempt hearing for Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins. The hearing is part of a legal dispute over the use of new congressional districts supported by President Donald Trump for the upcoming November election.

Missouri's top court had previously instructed Hoskins not to implement the Trump-backed map, ordering the use of districts established after the last census. However, U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark issued an order barring Hoskins from using any map other than the one favoured by Trump. The state Supreme Court then scheduled the contempt hearing for Hoskins for failing to comply with its directives and for instructing local election officials to use the Trump-supported districts.

Attorneys for Hoskins had sought to halt the contempt hearing, but Judge Clark declined their request. The hearing is set to take place while the U.S. Supreme Court considers an appeal from redistricting opponents seeking to block Clark's order that favours the Trump-backed congressional map.

Coverage comparison

What the coverage left out

None of the reports printed below mention the specific details of the congressional districts themselves, such as how they might affect election outcomes or which specific seats are targeted. The left-rated digests and the centre-rated digests and full report do not include information about the political motivations behind the redistricting effort or the specific impact on voters.

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 3 times, most recently on 10 Sept 2026, 13:30, and will add the sides that appear.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

2 rated outlets

  • The left-rated reports focused on the legal conflict surrounding the congressional district map supported by Donald Trump. Both Associated Press News and Durango Herald digests noted that a federal judge allowed Missouri's top court to proceed with a contempt hearing for Secretary of State Denny Hoskins over the dispute.

Centre

5 rated outlets

  • The centre-rated reports detailed the ongoing legal battle over Missouri's congressional districts. WKMG, in its full report, stated that a federal judge permitted the state's Supreme Court to hold a contempt hearing for Secretary of State Denny Hoskins. This hearing concerns the use of new congressional districts favoured by President Donald Trump. WKMG also noted that the state's top court had previously ordered Hoskins not to use the Trump-backed map, but U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark subsequently barred him from using anything other than that map. The digests from KRQE News 13, New Haven Register, KARK, and WSLS corroborated these points, indicating the federal judge's decision to allow the contempt hearing to proceed.

Right

0 rated outlets

No outlet rated right has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Federal judge allows Missouri contempt hearing in redistricting dispute?
Of the 7 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 29% are rated left, 71% are rated centre, 0% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Federal judge allows Missouri contempt hearing in redistricting dispute left or right?
Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 7 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
Is the coverage of Federal judge allows Missouri contempt hearing in redistricting dispute biased?
Federal judge allows Missouri contempt hearing in redistricting dispute is one event reported by 7 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Federal judge allows Missouri contempt hearing in redistricting dispute?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Federal judge allows Missouri contempt hearing in redistricting dispute?
7 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What is the contempt hearing about?
The contempt hearing is for Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, who is accused of not following orders from Missouri's Supreme Court. The dispute centres on whether to use new congressional districts supported by President Donald Trump.
What did the federal judge rule?
U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark ruled that Secretary of State Denny Hoskins must use the congressional district map favoured by President Donald Trump. He also allowed Missouri's Supreme Court to proceed with a contempt hearing for Hoskins.
What is the status of the Trump-backed map?
Missouri's top court had previously ordered Secretary of State Denny Hoskins not to use the Trump-backed map. However, a federal judge later barred Hoskins from using any map other than the one supported by Trump, creating a legal conflict.

Read it at the source

7 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

2

Centre

5

Right

0

No outlet in this group ran the story.

Not rated

0

No outlet in this group ran the story.

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

Denny Hoskins contempt hearing | MediaBias News