SAN FRANCISCO — How do you tell the United States Supreme Court it screwed up?

Very delicately, if you're a subordinate appellate court. Last week, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judges Stephen Reinhardt and Alex Kozinski — jurists who typically don't hesitate to speak their minds — tactfully asked the high court to clarify if it really meant to deny a habeas corpus appeal without either court having considered it on the merits.