Exactly spot on. If there had been judicial integrity here, they should have said “we believe the plaintiff doesn’t have standing to bring this before the Federal Court, therefore, the lower FEDERAL court ruling is vacated on that basis and we refer it back to the state court’s last ruling”.
That would have made their decision intellectually consistent...however, what I am thinking....
You are correct. If their representation was invalid at the Supreme Court level, then it would have been invalid at the original jurisdiction court level. But, maybe, the USSC can only make a decision on the immediately prior court’s ruling - I don’t know.