WASHINGTON (AP) — Nothing about the Supreme Court — not its magnificent building atop Capitol Hill nor its very title — suggests that its word is anything other than final. Yet federal appellate judges and even state court judges sometimes find ways to insist on an outcome the Supreme Court has rejected.

Just last week, the justices rebuked judges on the federal appeals court in San Francisco in the tragic case of a Los Angeles-area grandmother who was convicted of shaking her 7-week-old grandson to death. The appeals court overturned the conviction three times and twice, the justices ordered the appellate judges to try again. The third time around, the justices ended the case, pointedly upholding the conviction.

"Each time, the panel persisted in its course, reinstating its judgment without seriously confronting the significance of the cases called to its attention," the high court said in an unsigned opinion. "Its refusal to do so necessitates this court's action today."