Rhadamanthine is a judge’s strict and rigid interpretation or application of the law. 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.”
[Last updated in April of 2021 by the Wex Definitions Team]