This week, the Kansas Supreme Court began video streaming its oral arguments live on the Internet, Chief Justice Lawton R. Nuss announced.
The Court will hear oral arguments daily as part of its August docket from 9 a.m. to noon, through Friday Aug. 31. At oral arguments, each side’s attorney makes a presentation to the Court and answers questions from the justices. The video stream will be available via the Judicial Branch website at www.kscourts.org under the “Supreme Court Oral Arguments” heading.
“With this video stream, the Court will be even more open in its work. Now everyone, regardless of their location, can observe the justices in session,” Chief Justice Nuss said. “(This) week’s docket provides an excellent example of the benefit this technology brings to our citizens because the appeals include the one involving the construction permit of the proposed Holcomb coal electricity generating plant.”
The appeal involving the longstanding Holcomb plant controversy will be argued at 9 a.m. Friday.
Chief Justice Nuss said “the Court has a long history of seeking ways to make its work accessible to the public, beginning with allowing news cameras in the courtroom in 1981. We followed that by establishing one of the first state court websites in the country in 1996, and then by audio streaming oral arguments in 2004.
“In 2011, we took the historic step of hearing oral arguments at four locations beyond our Courtroom in Topeka. They included sessions at the Statehouse in Topeka, and in Salina, Greensburg, and Wichita. The sessions were well attended.  They helped us achieve our goal of showing Kansans who we are, what we do, and how we do it,” Nuss said.
“We think the video streamed Court sessions can also serve as educational opportunities for the state’s K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and our two law schools,” he added.
Kansas will become the 23rd state appellate court to offer a video stream of oral arguments, and one of only 13 that stream live. The Kansas Supreme Court will be video streamed live and later archived on the Judicial Branch website for later viewing.

The docket for the remainder of the week follows.
Wednesday, Aug. 29, 9 a.m.
• Appeal No. 105,098: Jacob Carl Rodewald v. Kansas Department of Revenue. (Jackson County)
• Appeal No. 103,242: State v. John Prine (Reno County)
• Appeal No. 101,723: State v. Randy Dean Hart (Elk County)
• Appeal No. 104,206: State v. Edward Spear III (Reno County)
• Appeal No. 103,361: State v. Karl Beaman (Wyandotte County)

Thursday, Aug. 30, 9 a.m.
• Appeal No. 101,666: Herman M. Ternes v. Joseph P. Galichia, M.D. and Accident Recovery Team et al. (Sedgwick County)
• Appeal No. 102,256: State v. Heather Hilton (Ellis County)
• Appeal No. 102,119: State v. Travis A. Montgomery (Shawnee County)
• Appeal No. 104,662: State v. Travis A. Montgomery (Seward County)
• Appeal No. 101,860: State v. James E. Campbell Jr. (Riley County)

Friday, Aug. 31, 9 a.m.
• Appeal No. 105,493: Sierra Club v. Robert Moser and Department of Health and Environment and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc. and Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, Intervenors
This is a direct review of an air permit the Kansas Department of Health and Environment issued to Sunflower to build a new 895-megawatt coal-fired electric generating unit and associated equipment at Holcomb Station in Holcomb. Sierra unsuccessfully claimed before KDHE that the permit fails to comply with the requirements of the federal Clear Air Act and Kansas law.
• Appeal Nos. 103,505/103,506: In the Matter of the Care and Treatment of Douglas Girard and Eugene Mallard (Clay County)
• Appeal No. 101,805: State v. Derek Alonzo (Miami County)
• Appeal No. 100,704: State v. Ricky J. Stovall (Shawnee County)