ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The Liberal community will be in for a very special opportunity late next month.
The Kansas Supreme Court will be conducting a special session Tuesday, Sept. 22. The court will be in session from 6:30 to 7:30 that evening in Maskus Auditorium at Liberal High School. Kansas Supreme Court Public Information Director Lisa Taylor said the session will be part of the court’s ongoing outreach to help familiarize Kansans with the court’s work and its overall role in the state’s judicial process.
“The court has been doing what we call the travel docket or community visits since the state first celebrated its sesquicentennial. Since you don't get many opportunities to say sesquicentennial, but on the state's 150th birthday, the court decided to take its court out of its courtroom here in the judicial center and went across the street to the Statehouse, where it was housed up until the late 1970s,” Taylor said. “So they heard a case there, and then they went on to visit other communities in the state. It was ambitious that first year, and they visited Greensburg, Wichita and Salina. Eventually, they settled into a regular cadence where they would go out twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, to visit a community and hear a case. Sometimes, in the earlier days, they would hear more than one case, but they finally settled on doing just one because they wanted time to interact with people who came out to watch the court in session. This is the 15th year, and I believe this is the 27th community visit in I believe 23 counties.”
Taylor then went into more detail about how the session will go.
“Before the session starts, the clerk of the appellate courts, and sometimes with input from the local chief judge for your judicial district, they will get up and speak before the court enters the room and before oral argument starts,” Taylor said. “And often, the local chief judge will discuss a little about the appellate process and maybe give a high-level overview of the case that will be heard that evening. We will have an honorary bailiff, someone local, who will call court into session, and then the court will enter the auditorium, and then they will begin oral argument. Each side gets a specific amount of time to make their points, meaning everything leading up to that moment is distilled down into that time of oral argument. The court they will ask questions to gain clarity about what the attorney is advocating for. They have the record from the trial court, they have the briefs filed by the attorneys, and then they have the oral argument that the attorneys make that night, and then that's what they will use when they conference the case, which is a conversation they have after the oral argument. They will meet privately and discuss the issues that were raised, the history of the case, and then reach hopefully a conclusion about how they will decide those questions of law. After the oral argument is done, it then it becomes an informal reception, and the judges will come out and meet people and get to know the community.”
Taylor said the court session could also provide a great learning experience for people in the community.
“Another part of why the court does this is because it's educational,” Taylor said. “There's a lot of learning about the court, what is the appellate process, what are oral arguments, who serves on the court, etc. There’s a lot to be learned from that, but what the justices also do is they will often partner with a local judge, and then fan out across the area to visit schools. They'll look at the schools in the area, which of them are open, and if they don't have any scheduling conflicts, they’ll ask if they would be open to having a justice visit. It's an opportunity for the justice and a local judge to go into a school and talk to students about careers in law, what it means to serve on the Supreme Court, or even becoming a local judge. There is a shortage of attorneys in rural Kansas we're working to at least slow down, and we want to encourage people to consider careers in law because there's a deep need, especially in rural Kansas.”
Taylor said she hopes many people will turn out for the special session.
“Most people don't have any interaction with court, or they may have a very limited experience with courts. There are also people who get their knowledge about the court system from a crime show they’ve seen on TV,” Taylor said. “However, this is the appellate court process, which is not a trial. The trial was at the district court level, and those questions have already been decided for the appellate courts, so the appellate court is for reviewing what happened at the trial court level and whether or not it follow the law. There are two levels of courts, and this is a way to see the appellate court level do its work so they can learn what that process is. And for the students at the high school, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because they're in high school now and the justices are visiting now. Could the court come back to Liberal at some point in the future? They certainly could, but is it likely it's going to happen anytime soon? No, because they have the rest of the state they want to visit. So this session really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go see the justices do what they do, meet them in person and get to know them. It's a rare and possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for something like this to be witnessed.”
Taylor said overall, the special session should be an interesting experience for those who attend.
“The doors will open at 5:30 that evening, and there is a little speech at the beginning – for those who want to hear that, they should be in their seats by 6:15 p.m.,” Taylor said. Another thing to keep in mind is that there will be security. I want to remind everyone don't bring food or drink, don't bring a big backpack with lots of stuff. People will also not be allowed to use electronics while the court is in session. Otherwise, come on out because it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, really, and it's a great a great way to know the Kansas Supreme Court and the people who serve on it.”
