The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1922-02-09

as his part of the assigned work for
the current month.
The following Wednesday morning
at nine o'clock the Justices meet in
the room of the junior member, who
presents each of his cases, stating the
facts, the points involved and the
questions for decision. Each of the
others is supposed to have gone over
the briefs and abstracts which he has
before him when the statement is
made, and in the most informal man
ner each case is taken up and con-
sidered until a determination is
reached as to how it shall be decided.
These discussions, while rarely acri-
monious, are often so vigorous and
spirited that if one could be permitted
to overhear he would be surprisingly
entertained. The member in whose
room the consultation is held presides
while there, and when his cases are
disposed of all file into the room of
the Justice next higher in seniority,
where similar proceedings are had
and so on until all the cases are thus
treated. This work of consultation is
really the most laborious and nerve
racking of the courts duties. Ere
quently the printed matter requiring
examination in one case covers hun
dreds of pages, and an immense
amount of reading is necessary to
prepare for consultation, which some
times runs into the following week.
Oral arguments are of great
assistance to the court. 1t is far
easier to understand the facts and
points when aided by the recollection
of an oral presentation.
When the consultations are con-
Guided each member may then enter
upon the preparation of his opinions.
When he gets one completed and the
syllabus prepared, he attaches a slip
with his name and the number of the
case and starts it down the line for a
critical examination by the other six,
and it must run the gauntlet where
nothing but cold scrutiny and rigid
inspection operate entirely free from
any regard for sensitiveness or thin
ness of epidermis. When the opinion
comes back to the author it may bear
evidences of sundry assaults requir-
ing another consultation and a rewrit-
ing of the first opinion or many
changes therein. In some instances
two or three consultations on a case
are held after the first opinion is sub
mitted for examination. After all
this when the court meets on Satur-
day morning after the next months
regular sitting to go over all the opin-
ions finally, each suggestion or criti-
cism remaining undisposed of is pre-
scented, considered and settled, or the
opinion is held up for another month.
Even after the opinion has been
filed and made public, when the
proof comes back from the printer it
must bear reinspection by the report
er and the writer and then after it
has been printed the result of all this
watchfulness may be disturbed by a
motion for rehearing, resulting in a
reargument and possibly another
opinion.
Thus it appears that when it gets
through the judicial hopper the grist
comes pretty thoroughly ground.
1t may with pardonable pride be
said that we are up with the work. In
the year ending June 80, 1920, 38S
cases were continued and in the fol-
lowing year 353 cases, which means
that we were ready but some of the
attorneys were not. A case may take
its usual course on appeal and a de-
cision be reached in six to eight
months, or less, while one original
proceeding was decided within eight
days from the time it was begun and
another within two days.
The press has not advertised these
facts. 1t is not too late now.
Our decisions become precedents
and constitute rules by which the.
affairs of Kansas men and women
must be governed and serve also to
safeguard their rights, their property,
their liberties and their welfare.
In all the thousands of opinions
published in the one hundred and
eight volumes of its reports, covering
sixty years, this court has overruled
one of its former decisions in only
seventy-one instances, an average of
a little over one a year.
To the two thousand lawyers of this
state, including an increasingly large
number of women, and to all othersl