In the long contest between political power and legal constraint, Missouri's Republican-led legislature drew new congressional lines meant to entrench its party's advantage — only to find those lines erased by its own state's highest court. When Missouri sought emergency rescue from the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices declined to intervene, leaving the state court's ruling intact. The moment is a quiet reminder that the drawing of maps, however deliberate, is not beyond the reach of law.