“Tax Write-Offs for Pot Club Expenses Barred”: Courthouse News Service has this report on a ruling that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued today.

“Leon Houston to get new federal trial”: The Knoxville News Sentinel has an article that begins, “Leon Houston won another round in his decadeslong battle with authorities Wednesday when a federal appeals court threw out his conviction for threatening to kill his former lawyer and ordered a new trial.”

You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit at this link.

In today’s reader mail: A reader emails:

I love your blog. Reader since 2004.

I write because I disagree with your criticism of Judge Reavley’s dissent in the death-row case. But I only do so because I clerked for him, and I’m familiar with his writing style.

I think that a fair reading of his statement was that “in the main” all the injunction did was require the temperature reduction. “In the main,” I think, is fairly translated as “in principal.” I think that a fair reading of the majority opinion and the dissent bears this out.

Please keep blogging! We love you in appellate land.

Thanks much for offering another point of view for consideration.

“Some things are more important than others”: Today at his “Hercules and the umpire” blog, Senior U.S. District Judge Richard G. Kopf has a post that begins, “I am today pulling the plug on Hercules and the umpire. Let me explain.”

Some may recall that Judge Kopf also quit blogging in January 2014.

“The Next Big Case Challenging Obama’s Executive Power”: Andrew Pincus has this essay online at TPM Cafe.

“The Illusion of a Liberal Supreme Court”: Linda Greenhouse has this essay online today at The New York Times.

“U.S. universities seek to delay lawsuits over Asian-American admissions”: Joan Biskupic of Reuters has this report.

Programming note: I will be in New York City today. As a result, additional posts will appear here tonight.

In the interim, appellate-related updates may appear at this blog’s Twitter feed.