Supreme Court refuses to rescue Missouri's map; federal judge rescues it anyway, hours later

…(cont) Two days go by. What does Missouri do with a setback like that? September 5th, the state's attorney general goes over the top court's head, straight to the U.S. Supreme Court, emergency application, asking one justice — Kavanaugh — to put the new map back. And what does the state call the situation it's in, in its own filing? "A federal-election-administration disaster." I wrote that down because I liked the phrase enough to want it right. Their words. I checked.

Tuesday. The Supreme Court answers. Declines. Doesn't touch the case, leaves the state court's ruling standing. So as of Tuesday afternoon, what map is Missouri running on? The old one. That's not me guessing — that's what "declines to hear it" gets you, if you stop the clock right there.

But the clock didn't stop. Hours later — the wire says hours, no clock on it more precise than that, so neither will I — a federal district judge, appointed by the same president the receipts say wanted this map in the first place, rules the opposite direction. Rules Missouri doesn't go back to the old lines after all. Rules the new map — the one the state's own court just killed, the one the U.S. Supreme Court just declined to save — is what the state runs on come November. Same Tuesday. Same map. Different building.

Now, I've got a car that needs a fan belt it hasn't gotten, and if I took it to two mechanics on the same afternoon and got two opposite diagnoses, what would a smart person do — drive off on the first one they liked, or wait for a third opinion? Missouri didn't wait. According to the Times, state officials said they'd forge ahead with the map their own high court had thrown out. Is that patience, or is that just Tuesday?

One number, since we're being honest about what's underneath all this paper: The Hill described the new map, on the 3rd, as one aimed at giving the party a single additional House seat. I'll leave that where it sits and move on, because it's not my job to add it up for you.

So what actually governs Missouri's congressional map tonight — the ruling from the court that declined to intervene, or the ruling from the judge who ruled hours after? Both are real. Both are on the docket. Neither one canceled the other.

Oh — before you go. Excuse me. The map the Supreme Court left alone on Tuesday, and the map the federal judge ordered into November that same day — are those two different maps, or is that one map with two rulings sitting on top of it?