The Supreme Court blocked a lower court from changing Missouri's congressional map.

The lower court then found another legal route to essentially the same result.

And then came the irony:

The Eighth Circuit effectively told the Missouri Supreme Court, “Respect the court above you", while finding a way around the court above it.

That's the story.

The Supreme Court increasingly makes consequential decisions through emergency orders that can provide little explanation. Its Missouri order provided none.

Now a lower court has used an unusually aggressive procedural route to get back to the result SCOTUS had just blocked.

Courts ultimately depend on more than “the higher court wins.”

They depend on judges believing the rules bind everyone, including themselves.

When the rules look flexible at the top, don't be surprised when they start looking flexible below.

What happens at the Supreme Court rolls downhill.