Plain-English glossary
Simpler words, same uncertainty. Nothing here is a prediction about how this ends.
- Temporary Restraining Order (TRO)
- A short-term emergency court order intended to prevent alleged harm while a court considers what should happen next. It is not a final decision on the merits.
- Injunction
- A court order directing a person or government official to do something or stop doing something.
- Stay
- A court order temporarily pausing another court order or legal proceeding.
- Administrative stay
- Very short-term relief often used by an appellate court to preserve the situation while judges consider a fuller request for a stay. It does not ordinarily indicate how the court will ultimately rule.
- Referendum
- A vote in which the people approve or reject an act already passed by the legislature. Missouri reserves this power in Article III, section 49 of its constitution.
- Certificate of Insufficiency
- The Secretary of State's formal determination that a petition does not qualify. Under RSMo 116.150 the Secretary must issue a certificate of sufficiency or insufficiency by a statutory deadline.
- Emergency application
- A request asking a court to act quickly, outside the ordinary briefing schedule. A ruling on one decides whether to grant emergency relief, not who is right about the underlying dispute.
- Merits
- The substance of a legal dispute — who is actually right — as opposed to procedural or emergency questions about what should happen in the meantime.
- Three-judge district court
- Under 28 U.S.C. § 2284, constitutional challenges to congressional apportionment are ordinarily heard by a panel of three federal judges rather than one. A single judge has limited authority to act alone.
- Elections Clause
- The provision of the U.S. Constitution giving states the power to set the times, places and manner of congressional elections, subject to Congress.
- Purcell principle
- The idea that federal courts should be cautious about changing election rules close to an election. Which arrangement counts as “no change” can itself be disputed.
- Rooker-Feldman doctrine
- A rule limiting when a federal district court may hear a case that amounts to an appeal from a state court judgment.
- Anti-Injunction Act
- A federal statute limiting when a federal court may enjoin state court proceedings.
- Contempt
- A court's finding that someone disobeyed its order, and the process for asking a court to make such a finding. A request for contempt is an allegation; only the court decides.
- Unripe
- A case a court declines to decide because the dispute has not yet developed enough to be resolved.
- UOCAVA
- The federal law governing absentee voting for military and overseas voters. It sets deadlines by which ballots must be transmitted, which constrains how late election arrangements can change.