Reading order: numbered list + footnote block placed before section headings that are physically above it

Bug

On a PDF page with a numbered list, a heading break, some prose, another heading, a second numbered list, and a footnote, docling's reading-order model moves the second numbered list (plus its intro line and footnote) up to right after the first list — skipping past several section headings and paragraphs that are physically above it on the page....

Reproduces with all three layout models I tried (docling_layout_heron, docling_layout_v2, docling_layout_heron_101). No pipeline option exposes control over the reading-order stage to work around it.

Steps to reproduce

1. pip install docling
2. Save attached docling_reading_order_repro.pdf next to the script.
3. Run:

from docling.document_converter import DocumentConverter
result = DocumentConverter().convert("docling_reading_order_repro.pdf")
print(result.document.export_to_markdown())

1. In the output, "For the purpose of this Regulation:" and its list appear before "CHAPTER I", even though CHAPTER I's bbox is higher on the page. ...

Docling version

quay.io/docling-project/docling-serve-cu128:v1.30.0 ...

Python version

3.11

docling_reading_order_repro.pdf [docling_reading_order_repro.py](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/32761792/docling_reading_order_repro.py