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"... being a Canadian, he may not be all that familiar with American jurisprudence these days."

Frum remains primarily Stateside based as indicated by his American Enterprise Institute "AEI" e-address above & on-going regular contributions to the National Review.

Plus, it's tough to question the perceptiveness of someone who apparently coined the term "axis of evil".

As for being Canadian, throughout history & as was the case in Roman times, citizens of countries beyond "great powers", for mostly pragmatic reasons, generally do have a better knowledge of their inner workings than their's have of the numerous lesser lands beyond their own borders.
(e.g. smart money says I know more about the magnificent U.S. Constitution than you do about Canada's horrid Charter)

As for the College Republicans lacking the deep pockets required to rightly pursue the matter, perhaps Frum is aware of them having some friends who do? If so, the 9th would only amount to an unfortunate & temporary stumbling block on the way to the higher Court in Washington.

You win your bet. I confess I know nothing about Canada's Charter.

So Frum is still in Washington, eh, though writing for a Canadian publication? AEI is a good think tank for free enterprisers.

As to the Supreme Court and the "Ninth Circus," the SCOTUS (with very few exceptions which don't apply here) has the prerogative to decide which cases from the federal circuit courts it wishes to review. In practice, the SCOTUS decides to review approximately one percent of cases in which the losing party in the lower court petitions the SCOTUS for certiorori. That is, if you lose a case in any of the circuit courts, chances are very much against you that the SCOTUS will allow you to even bother them with your grief and you're likely stuck with the circuit court's adverse decision. On the positive side, though, the SCOTUS has been reversing decisions by the Ninth Circus at significantly higher rate than those of other circuits.