By William Adams and Owen Roberts (February 13, 2018, 12:34 PM EST) -- Lower federal courts are courts of twice-limited subject-matter jurisdiction: They may exercise authority only over the types of cases and controversies set forth in Article III, and then only to the extent those cases and controversies are "encompassed within a statutory grant of jurisdiction."[1] A little-discussed petition for certiorari, Vitol SA v. Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica de Puerto Rico (No. 17-951), concerns the second of those limits, presenting the important question of whether a lower federal court may resolve a case on the merits without determining whether Congress has granted it jurisdiction to do so. The exercise of so-called hypothetical jurisdiction implicates not just the procedure for case adjudication by lower federal courts but also more weighty questions concerning the separation of powers, federalism and preclusion....