Hello Gary. Good to see you back.

What the NEC actually requires is that the grounding connection be done
through pigtails. The reason, I guess, is that if the receptacle (or
whatever) is removed, the continuity of the grounding circuit is not
interrupted.

Chuck



Also, pigtails are better than running the power through an outlet, because if one of
them craps out, you still have the other one functioning.


I hear this often but it doesn't make much sense although I think the
NEC does require pigtails in commercial buildings.
There is not much to fail in an outlet. The connection to the next
outlet is external to the outlet in the form of a jumper bar between
wiring terminals. Unless someone deliberately breaks them off there is
not much probability for the next outlet to fail even if the first
ones inside contacts do fail.