[AnthonyMouse]

>The difference is that your point was based on a single circuit ruling, where it's pretty much required that the "another circuit ruling differently" happen before it's even possible to get to the SC.

It isn't a requirement that there be a circuit split before the Supreme Court will take a case. You're certainly right that a circuit split makes it a lot more likely they'll take it, but that doesn't make it a prerequisite. They've been known to take important cases of first impression without it. If we're going to be pedants then we have to be pedantic, right?

[rhizome]

I never said it was a prerequisite, "pretty much required" is not "requires," and have gone out of my way to couch my point with wiggle room. Yes, it's not required, but these days it's pretty much all they work on. It's just an observation based on historical behavior, not an analysis of the various paths by which a case can make it there.