Caelin Bragg
Lantern Staff
As part of its initiative to reach out to the public, the Kansas Supreme Court held a special session in El Dorado and met with the community prior to and after the session.
The justices heard oral arguments from attorneys of two separate cases in the El Dorado High School auditorium on Monday, Oct. 7 to an audience of over 400 members, according to Vice President of Student Services Bill Rinkenbaugh. Each case’s oral arguments, which started at 6:30 p.m., took roughly 45 minutes, and the justices then opened their informal reception with the public in the commons area of the high school at 8 p.m.
“Community visits are a great way for the people of Kansas to get to know us—to see who we are, what we do, how we do it—and to learn about the judiciary’s role in our society,” Chief Justice Lawton Nuss said in a press release about the event.
The first case heard was an appeal of a guilty verdict in a murder charge in Butler County from 2016, with the appellant claiming they were not given a fair trial. The other case was a land ownership dispute between the city of Lenexa and the appellant, GFTLenexa LLC.
Justice Carol Beier and Jan Satterfield, judge for the 13th Judicial District of Kansas, also met with Butler students, faculty and staff in the Clifford Stone Room of the Welcome Center earlier that day. They spoke briefly about their backgrounds and explained the roles and rules of the different courts and answered questions from those in attendance. The other justices also met with various high schools in Butler County, including El Dorado, Circle, Rose Hill and Andover Central.
“The take away for me is that all positions have challenges and rewards,” Rinkenbaugh said. “… I thought both judges did a great job explaining what they do and how they prepare to do it on a daily basis. I also believe that those that were there gained a respect for what they do.“
One of the Supreme Court Justices Dan Biles who met with El Dorado High School students alongside Mike Ward, judge for the 13th Judicial District of Kansas, earlier that day, is an El Dorado native, and he received a round of applause from the audience during the special session after being introduced.
“Quite honestly, it’s been very reflective,” Justice Biles said, responding to being back in El Dorado. “It’s been a trip down memory lane. [El Dorado High School Principal Bruce Lolling] gave me a tour, and the gym is the only thing that’s the same; everything else is different.”
Lolling was very positive about being able to host the Supreme Court and Judge Ward at the high school and said that the special session was an “enlightening” experience.
“I hope that our students who attended both the afternoon assembly with Justice Biles and Judge Ward and the evening session were able to see how to have civil discussion on issues upon which you may disagree,” Lolling said. “I also hope that they took away a little bit of knowledge about how the court system works in comparison to what they may have seen on TV and movies.”
