In the days before a national midterm election, the Supreme Court quietly drew a line — blocking Missouri from using a congressional map its Republican legislature had engineered to entrench partisan advantage. The intervention was rare, moving at unusual speed and clearing a high legal bar that courts seldom reach, suggesting the justices saw something in Missouri's map that could not wait for the slower rhythms of ordinary litigation. It is a moment that reminds us that democracy's machinery — who draws the lines, and where — remains one of the most consequential and contested questions in A