TOPEKA—The Kansas Supreme Court will conduct a special evening session March 30 at Southwestern College in Winfield 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. Thursday, March 30, in the Richardson Performing Arts Center in the Christy Administration Building on the Southwestern College campus at 100 College Street.
It will be the Supreme Court’s first visit to Winfield in the court’s 156-year history and it will be only the sixth time that the court will hear cases in the evening.
The public is invited to attend the special session to observe the court as it hears oral arguments in two cases to be announced soon. After the hearing concludes, the justices will greet the public in an informal reception in the lobby adjacent to the performing arts center.
“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 Chief Justice Lawton Nuss. “We encourage anyone who’s ever been curious about Supreme Court proceedings to come. We continue to provide live webcasts of all our courtroom sessions in the Kansas Judicial Center in Topeka, but people tell us there’s nothing like seeing proceedings in person.”
The Supreme Court has conducted several special sessions outside its Topeka courtroom since 2011, when it marked the state sesquicentennial by convening 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.
Since then, the court has had sessions in Garden City, Hays, Hiawatha, Hutchinson, Kansas City, Overland Park, Pittsburg and Topeka.
The court started conducting evening sessions when it visited Hays in April 2015. That event draw a crowd of nearly 700 people. Subsequent evening sessions have also drawn crowds numbering in the hundreds.