BankDirect Capital Finance, LLC v. Plasma Fab, LLC

in which Justice Green, Justice Lehrmann, Justice Boyd, Justice Devine, and Justice Brown joined.

Verbis legis tenaciter inhaerendum.

“Hold tight to the words of the law.” This maxim, fittingly the lead epigraph to Reading Law,1 captures the foremost task of legal interpretation: divining what the law is, not what the interpreter wishes it to be.

The lion’s share of modern appellate judging is reading legislative language and decoding what it means. On that score, our interpretive precedent favors bright lines and sharp corners. If a case can be decided according to the statute itself, it must…