WASHINGTON-The Supreme Court on Friday told Missouri Republicans no. Yet again.

For the third time this month, the court brushed aside a last-gasp bid by the state GOP to install a gerrymandered congressional map for the 2026 midterm elections. The court's latest rebuff-a five-page opinion without any dissents-said bluntly that the decision "should come as no surprise" given its earlier rulings on the matter.

Taken together, the series of snubs is about as close as the Supreme Court comes to saying enough already. And it was all the more notable coming from a court with a 6-3 conservative majority.

Election litigation is often fast-moving and chaotic, but the Missouri redistricting dispute became a particularly unusual saga on the Supreme Court's emergency docket, with twists created by aggressive litigants, ballot deadlines and strong-willed lower-court judges.

Here's how Republicans in the state struck out.

Strike 1: A Solo Order From Kavanaugh

It all began with new district lines drawn last year by Missouri's Republican-controlled state legislature at the behest of President Trump. The new map was expected to give the GOP an extra seat in the state's congressional delegation, and the state used the map for its primary elections in August.

But on Sept. 3, Missouri's highest court invalidated the pro-GOP map for this year's general election. The Missouri court said keeping the map in place would violate a state law that gives voters the ability to approve or reject new district lines in a referendum. The consequence, it seemed, was that Missouri law required the general election to be held using the state's previous map, which had been adopted in 2022.

Ordinarily, the Supreme Court has no power to review state court judgments on questions of state law. But Missouri Republicans asked the justices to intervene anyway.

On Sept. 8, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who fields emergency appeals from Missouri and surrounding states, quickly denied the GOP's request. Kavanaugh, a conservative, didn't even refer the matter to the full court-an indication that he didn't consider it a close call.

Strike 2: The Full Court Steps In

Proponents of the new map-led by two Republican congressional candidates-were undeterred. In a parallel lawsuit in federal court, they convinced a conservative district judge to issue an order that the state reimpose the pro-GOP map. Once again, the matter rushed up to the Supreme Court.

This time, Kavanaugh referred the issue to his colleagues. In a short-form procedural ruling on Sept. 10, the full court rebuffed the Missouri Republicans and prevented the district judge's order from taking effect. The high court's terse ruling came less than an hour after the Republicans' legal brief hit the docket-unusually condensed timing that suggested no serious deliberation or debate was needed.

The message to the Missouri GOP and to lower courts still weighing last-ditch litigation over the map seemed clear: It is over.

Strike 3: The Final Rebuke

The message wasn't received.

Litigation continued in the lower courts. And this week, a conservative panel of a federal appeals court issued yet another decision ordering the state to reinstate the Republican map for the midterms.

The panel reasoned that, under the U.S. Constitution, the general election needed to be held using the same district lines that were used in the primaries. And it said that its ruling took precedence over the Missouri court's decision about what state law required.

Many legal experts said the appeals panel relied on a questionable interpretation of the Constitution and wasn't supported by Supreme Court precedents. It also threatened to inject chaos into the election because Missouri had already begun sending out ballots that reflected the old district lines. Absentee voting began this week.

So opponents of the map once again rushed to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh again referred the matter to his colleagues, and on Friday evening, the high court made clear that it thought the appeals panel had overstepped. The justices' unsigned opinion suggested frustration that the panel had forged ahead with a new attempt to reinstate the new Republican map.

"This court's September 10 stay order meant that the 2022 map would be used in the 2026 congressional election in Missouri, absent further order of this court," the justices wrote.

The high court's opinion also noted that its precedents have never said that the Constitution requires states to use the same maps for primary and general elections.

The latest development appears to guarantee that the Republican map is dead for 2026. Whether it gets revitalized is now up to Missourians: They will vote in November on whether to adopt the new district lines for future elections.