WASHINGTON-The Supreme Court for a second time blocked Missouri from using a congressional map in the November midterm elections that the state GOP redrew to benefit Republicans.

The court issued a brief order Thursday to end a dispute that Justice Brett Kavanaugh had already tried to settle earlier this week. No justices recorded any dissent, and the order came less than an hour after Missouri Republicans submitted a legal brief seeking to use their preferred map.

That unusually rapid timing suggested the justices were eager to send a message about the last-ditch bid by Republicans to circumvent a prior ruling from the state's highest court, which deemed the pro-GOP map invalid.

Missouri's legislature voted to redraw its congressional districts last year amid a mid-decade redistricting push across the country as Republicans and Democrats battled for control of the House of Representatives. The new map would have given GOP candidates an advantage in seven of the state's eight House districts.

Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court said the redrawn districts can't be used unless voters approve them in a ballot referendum. On Tuesday, Kavanaugh rejected an emergency appeal from Missouri Republicans and declined to disturb the state court's ruling. Kavanaugh, who fields emergency requests from Missouri and surrounding states, didn't refer the matter to the full court-a sign that he didn't believe it raised a serious legal issue.

But minutes after being notified of Kavanaugh's action, a federal judge in a different case nevertheless restored the Republican-favored districts, setting off a lightning-quick flurry of new proceedings that rushed back up to the Supreme Court.

The legal fight has created last-minute electoral chaos, with candidates and voters unsure of who would be on the ballot in which districts. The now-invalidated map was used in the state's primary, and officials now face a scramble in finalizing congressional contests for Election Day.

Missouri's state legislature, like other Republican-controlled legislatures, attempted the mid-decade gerrymandering at the behest of President Trump. The Trump administration, in a brief filed Thursday morning by Solicitor General John Sauer, supported the state GOP's long-shot bid to restore the pro-Republican map.

The state Supreme Court, meanwhile, convened proceedings Thursday to decide whether to hold the state's top election official, Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, in contempt for not following its ruling. After the federal district court issued its order on Sept. 8, Hoskins sent local election officials an email directing them to use the gerrymandered map.

A state lawyer said at the hearing that the secretary viewed the federal court order as superseding the state court one. Hoskins, he said, "was between a rock and a hard place" with a looming ballot deadline.

Missouri Chief Justice W. Brent Powell said the secretary could have waited until a final ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court before issuing his directive and warned Hoskins "not to venture too far from Jefferson City until this contempt motion is resolved."