Readers of The Brief are likely aware of what’s going on with Missouri’s election maps, and of a character at the center of that drama, secretary of state Denny Hoskins.

A federal judge allowed Missouri's top court to proceed with a contempt hearing Thursday for Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in a tense and twisting legal battle over whether new congressional districts supported by President Trump can be used in November.

A high-stakes legal fight over Missouri’s congressional map was engulfed in chaos late Tuesday after the US Supreme Court and a lower federal court issued conflicting decisions on whether the state can use aggressively gerrymandered district lines that Republicans drew last year at the behest of President Donald Trump.