Comment by psunavy03
17 hours ago
The Supreme Court can only rule on cases brought to it. And in those cases, they are ruling on specific points of law which one party believes that a lower court misapplied. In this case, the parties asked the Court specifically to review whether a TikTok forced divestiture (not a ban, a forced sale) violated the First Amendment.
> The Supreme Court can only rule on cases brought to it.
That might be technically true, but if (1) you're the lawyer representing a party in an important case, (2) you've already appealed that case up to the highest appelate court and lost, and (3) you think there's any chance that the Supreme Court might change the ruling in your favor, then wouldn't it basically be professional malpractice to not petition for certiorari? Of course, they only accept a tiny percentage of the petitions they receive.