Over 700 hundred students packed the auditorium of Reeths-Puffer High School in Muskegon Wednesday morning for an up close look at the Michigan Supreme Court in action.
The event is all part of the Court’s “Community Connections Program” that takes Supreme Court Justices out of Lansing and into various cities and townships across the state where students get to see firsthand how the legal process works at the state’s highest level.
"I think young people and students are very familiar with the trial court process because of popular fiction and popular broadcasts,” Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Stephen J. Markman said. “But sometimes, they lose sight of the fact that what happens at trial can be very easily can be reversed upon appeal, and I think hat this gives them a better sense of how that latter part of that process works.”
Students had an opportunity to meet the justices following the event for a meet and greet in the school lobby. Reeths-Puffer High Schooler Jonathan Krause says it’s an experience he will not soon forget.
“It was very interesting to see,” Krause said. “This was the first court procedure that I have ever seen in real life. Just very cool for me.”
The event marks the 23rd time the Michigan Supreme Court has gone on the road to a local community to hear arguments. In this case, the court heard oral arguments in The people vs. Mead, a case involving whether a police officer had lawful consent to search a backpack where drugs were ultimately found. The court has yet to make a ruling.
