Modi v. West Virginia Board of Medicine

Justice Albright has written what is in many respects an excellent opinion. Perhaps the most important contribution the opinion makes to the law is its clear enunciation that when the Board of Medicine departs from its hearing examiner’s findings of fact and conclusions of law, it must craft an order that gives a reasoned, articulate statement of its reasons.1

It is inarguable that the manner in which the Board’s order was fashioned made it almost impossible to discern their reasoning. As a result, I am unable to conclude from that order, as did the majority, that the Board was arbitrary and…