Born in Welch, West Virginia, Kiser earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Concord College in 1951 and a Bachelor of Laws from Washington and Lee University School of Law in 1952.
He then worked as an assistant United States Attorney of the Western District of Virginia from 1958 to 1961.
He was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 3, 1981, and received his commission the same day.
Most notably, he was the trial judge for two cases that eventually reached the United States Supreme Court: United States v. Virginia, in which the Supreme Court held Virginia Military Institute's male-only admissions policy unconstitutional, and United States v. Morrison, in which the High Court struck down portions of a federal law for exceeding the scope of Congress' authority under the Commerce Clause.
[citation needed] In 2015, Judge Kiser dismissed a challenge to Virginia's effective ban on uranium mining, holding that Virginia's actions were not preempted by the Atomic Energy Act.