Judges debate hierarchy for canons of construction

Trial Notebook

By Steven P. Garmisa

Hoey & Farina

Posted July 21, 2021 12:14 PM

(This is part one of a two-part series. Part two will be available on Thursday.)James Kisor’s fight for 24 years of benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs seems poised for a return trip to the U.S. Supreme Court. A panel majority on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled against him — again — and the full court denied his petition for en banc rehearing, with a noteworthy split on whether canons of statutory interpretation should be deployed in a hierarchical “order-of …

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