[rayiner]

> There is only one such court, but cases are often heard by a subset of the justices.

To be specific, like all U.S. Courts of Appeal, the Federal Circuit hears cases in panels of three judges, drawn from the overall pool. In certain circumstances (notably, anything that requires a prior panel opinion to be overruled), a majority of the judges on the court may vote to rehear a matter en banc, in which case all the judges on the court vote on the outcome.

If I recall correctly, the panels are assigned randomly as the cases come in, so if there is a marked division in opinions within the court, the outcome can depend heavily on the luck of the draw.