TOPEKA—The Kansas Supreme Court will live webcast its special session from the Performing Arts Center on the Kansas City Kansas Community College campus beginning at 9 a.m. Wednesday, October 29.
The live webcast will be available at http://www.kscourts.org/SCLive.asp.
The court is conducting the special session at the Kansas City Kansas Community College as part of its ongoing outreach to familiarize Kansans with the high court, its work, and the overall role of the Kansas judiciary.
The court will be in session from 9 a.m. to about noon in the Performing Arts Center on the college campus at 7250 State Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas. It will hear oral arguments in two criminal cases and three civil cases.
Since 2011, the court has visited several communities where it convened in special session in public venues and invited the community to attend.
“The public is welcome and encouraged to attend, but we also offer the live webcast to reach people who are interested but unable to attend in person,” said Chief Justice Lawton R. Nuss.
Over the last several weeks, Supreme Court staff have been in contact with area high school teachers and Kansas City Kansas Community College faculty to identify classes of students who want to attend the special session to hear oral arguments in person. Background information about the cases was shared with students so they know the basic legal questions to be argued before the court. That information is also available to the public on the court’s website at www.kscourts.org/Cases-and-Opinions/Traveling-dockets/Supreme-Court-traveling-docket.asp.
Students will make up the largest segment of the audience in the 360-seat Performing Arts Center, but there will be seats available for the public, too.
“Anyone who’s ever been curious about Supreme Court proceedings should come,” Nuss said. “We’ve provided live webcasts of our courtroom sessions in Topeka since 2012, but people tell us there’s nothing like seeing proceedings in person.”
In 2011, the Supreme Court convened outside its Topeka courtroom in the Kansas Judicial Center to mark the state’s sesquicentennial. Its first stop was the historic Supreme Court courtroom in the Kansas Statehouse. From there, and through the end of 2011, the court conducted special sessions in Salina, Greensburg, and Wichita. The court held sessions in Overland Park in 2012 and Pittsburg in 2013.