Supreme Court to conduct special evening session April 12 at Hiawatha High School

TOPEKA—The Kansas Supreme Court will conduct a special evening session at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, at Hiawatha High School 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 6:30 p.m. to about 8 p.m. in the auditorium of Hiawatha High School at 600 Red Hawk Drive in Hiawatha.

It will be the Supreme Court's first visit to Hiawatha in the court's 155-year history and it will be the fourth time for the court to hear cases in the evening. The court's first evening session was in April 2015 in Hays and it drew a record crowd of nearly 700 people. An evening session in Garden City in October 2015 drew about 500 people. A third evening March 9 in Topeka also drew a crowd numbering in the hundreds.

The public is invited to attend the April 12 special session to observe the court as it hears oral arguments in two cases to be announced prior to April. After the hearing concludes, the justices will greet the public in an informal reception in the school's commons area.

"Community visits are a great way for the people of Kansas to get to know us — to see who we are and what we do — and to learn about the judiciary's role in our society," said Nuss. "We encourage anyone who's ever been curious about Supreme Court proceedings to come. We provide live webcasts of all our courtroom sessions in the Kansas Judicial Center, but people tell us there's nothing like seeing proceedings in person."

The Supreme Court's has conducted several special sessions outside its Topeka courtroom since 2011 and they regularly draw crowds numbering in the hundreds.

In 2011, the court marked the state sesquicentennial by convening in a special session in 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, Pittsburg in 2013, Kansas City in 2014, Hays in April 2015, and Garden City in October 2015.