Nebraska Supremes take show on road, hold court at Omaha high school

Yahoo

03-04-2025

Omaha Bryan High School students listen to the "traveling" Nebraska Supreme Court that convened at the high school on April 2, 2025. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)
OMAHA — It was not your typical day in the Nebraska Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Jeffrey Funke and six associate justices donned their traditional black robes and convened to hear customary oral arguments — but only after maneuvering past the theater props, art supplies and other items common to the back stage of a school auditorium.
The state's high court judges peppered attorneys with questions about the appellate case at hand. But in a different twist afterward, they faced their own barrage of questions from a group of curious teenagers.
Wednesday's official Supreme Court proceedings played out on a stage at Omaha Bryan High School. Taking a real-life court session out of the State Capitol and on the road was part of the Court's efforts to increase public understanding and trust in the judicial system, and to inspire more young people to join the legal profession.
For Kyra Carpenter, editor-in-chief of the Bryan High Orator, the event on Bear turf pulled back the curtain on a system she had only read about. She said she came to school 'really nervous' to ask questions of the justices, but later felt at ease.
'They seem more like people, more real,' the junior said after the event. 'They even laughed at one of my jokes.'
Saúl Muñoz-Macias, also a junior, said he will be the first in his family to go to college when he pursues a political science and economics degree on the way to law school.
'It's cool to see this,' the 16-year-old said. 'I'd like to be in a position like them some day.'
Joining Funke on the auditorium stage — before an audience of about 50 students from the school's classes on American Government, Law and Juvenile Justice and AP History — were Justices Lindsey Miller-Lerman, William Cassel, Jonathan Papik, Stephanie Stacy, John Freudenberg and Jason Bergevin.
The Supreme Court, supported by the Nebraska State Bar Foundation, holds such school-based court sessions a few times a year in various parts of the state. A similar event was held earlier in the day at Creighton University School of Law.
While intended as outreach and education for students, Funke said in an interview that he believes judges also reap benefits.
'They ask us questions, they challenge us, and it makes us think a little bit about what we do, how we do it, why we do it and if there are ways we can do it better,' said Funke, a graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Law who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2016 and elevated to chief justice last year.
At Bryan, official business came to order about 1:30 p.m. with a shout from a member of the Nebraska State Patrol: 'This room is now a courtroom…Welcome to the Supreme Court.'
A student bailiff gave the 'all rise' alert. Prior to that, the Patrol had searched and secured the school grounds. Student ambassadors escorted justices backstage, where they assembled before taking their seats.
The spotlighted case had to do with a battle over a roadway, and a 'prescriptive easement,' which is a legal right to use someone else's property based upon a long-term, consistent and open use of that property without the expressed consent of the owner.
In this situation, a family had owned a swath of land in Otoe County since 1857. But the Little Nemaha River cuts off part of the property to the south, making it inaccessible to vehicles or farm machinery except by crossing through the neighboring Dowding property.
The Dowding property owners grew frustrated enough to lock an access gate, which pushed the other family to sue, and a district court granted them access based on prescriptive easement.
Attorneys David Domina and Ryan McIntosh argued their respective sides, and justices asked a lot of questions.
'I wasn't expecting the judges to just interrupt them like they did — I was like, 'Oh,'' said Kyra.
Perhaps the tougher inquisition came after attorneys wrapped up their arguments, and as students stepped up to question the justices.
One teen wanted to know the judges' most difficult or impactful case.
For Funke, that was deciding as a trial judge the fate of a child in a custody or divorce situation.
'What you want and what you can do sometimes are two different things,' he said. 'You know the importance of it and if you get it wrong, the impact is significant for that child.'
Cassel talked about death penalty decisions.
'A very solemn and complicated undertaking,' he said, adding that such cases fortunately aren't frequent. 'That's probably the highest single responsibility that one of us can have — (rendering) our judgement whether someone lives or dies.'
Asked to describe 'most interesting' cases, Miller-Lerman recalled the Beatrice Six. Miller-Lerman — the first woman on the Nebraska Supreme Court and longest-serving member of the current high court — wrote the 7-0 opinion in 2007 that allowed DNA testing for two men in the Beatrice Six who had been convicted of murder in 1989.
Results showed neither man had committed the crime, leading to the exoneration of them and four others who had falsely confessed. They won a wrongful conviction judgement of $28 million.
Students ventured into politics, with one wondering if justices believed the country was in a 'constitutional crisis' between the Trump administration and the courts.
Cassel suggested the student google President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 'court-packing plan' and said, 'We aren't even close.'
We think it's important you trust your judiciary. That's why we take these opportunities.
– Chief Justice Jeffrey Funke
Another wanted to know if the justices feared for their jobs under Donald Trump's administration, given that the president called for the removal of a judge who ruled against deportation plans.
Funke used the moment to delve into differences between Nebraska's method of appointing and removing judges versus that of the federal government. In Nebraska, he noted, voters choose whether a judge should be retained. In a case of alleged bad behavior, a process overseen by a Judicial Qualifications Commission made up of attorneys and lay persons can sanction or remove a judge from the bench.
In response to a question about $80 million being poured into a Wisconsin Supreme Court race, Cassel differentiated between states that elect their judges and Nebraska, where the governor appoints judges from candidates submitted by a nominating commission.
To one student's observation that the high court spent a lot of time obsessing over terms such as consent and prescriptive and necessity easements, Papik said law school would prepare them for this new vocabulary.
'Much of what you're doing is learning a new language,' he said.
When asked what the Supreme Court does to earn high school students' trust, Stacy said: 'We're here.'
She said the hope is students 'learn a little about how the process works.' She added, 'Some of you might even be thinking, 'Law school doesn't sound horrible.''
Stacy touched upon open access to courts, cameras in the courtroom, publicly broadcasted proceedings. 'We don't do our work in secret,' she told the teens.
Funke said if the Court loses its authority, rule of law gives way to survival of the fittest, and whoever is the strongest, has the most muscle or guns, he said.
'We think it's important you trust your judiciary,' he said. 'That's why we take these opportunities.'
Students got a primer ahead of the proceedings from a couple of local lawyers: Abigail Moland of the Omaha McGrath North law firm and Ceci Menjivar, a Douglas County assistant public defender, who also is a Bryan alumna.
'It's a great opportunity to give back and have Latino students see there are attorneys that look like them … and let them know ways they can contribute.'
Bryan Principal Anthony 'CK' Clark-Kaczmarek said he wasn't sure how his school was selected as a site, but that he jumped at what would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many in the student body.
'I loved that our kids were so fearless in the question-asking,' he said, adding that they hear a lot of news and were eager to hear the perspective of the state's highest-level judges.
'All students really want to know is that things are going to be okay — that government is going to do the right thing and protect them.'
As is standard, the Supreme Court did not immediately announce a determination on the civil case argued Wednesday, Fey v. Olson. The Court relays decisions in written opinions filed with the Court's clerk.
The justices stuck around to take photos with students. The principal took a selfie with the justices and students, at the urging of Carpenter. Funke said such road trips help the court reset.
He said he appreciated the atmosphere — the occasional school bell during proceedings, voices from hallways. He got a kick out of assembling with fellow judges backstage amid drama props, a change from pristine quarters in the Capitol.
'It kinda brings you back to the normal, everyday world,' said Funke.
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