rhadamanthine
Rhadamanthine is a judge’s strict and rigid interpretation or application of the law. It traces its origin to Rhadamanthus, a figure in Greek mythology, who is a judge in the underworld. For example, in In re Bevan, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals eschewed an inflexible interpretation of Congress’s intent in granting the IRS a right of redemption, reasoning that “considering Congress's beneficent purpose in conferring a right of redemption upon the IRS, we also need not be rhadamanthine to decide that it would be inequitable to permit Socal to ‘get a windfall at the expense of’ the Bevans.” In United States v. 4.620 Acres of Land, the United States District Court, Southern District of Texas held that the fact that an expert used a slightly wrong date for his report was a “Rhadamanthine argument […] far afield from demonstrating the unreliability of Mr. Garza's opinion and testimony.”
[Last reviewed in May of 2024 by the Wex Definitions Team]
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