South Dakota Supreme Court visits USD

  Last week the South Dakota Supreme Court held its annual session here on campus. The court heard various cases ranging from tax laws to murder charges. 

     Patty DeVaney is a Justice on the South Dakota Supreme Court and says these sessions play a vital role in the link between the justice system and its people.

     “It’s our opportunity to interact with law students there and be open to the public. We like to go on the road so that the public can see how we do our work,” DeVaney said.

     DeVaney says there is a great importance in letting the public understand and witness what goes on in their judicial system.

     “We are trying to promote trust and public confidence in the work of the court, and it’s important that the process is open to the public. I think sometimes when people see how the process works they have a better appreciation for the importance of the judicial process and the work of the courts,” DeVaney said.

     Though that’s not the only purpose of these visits. DeVaney also says that these sessions can play a role in encouraging students to pursue a degree in law.

     “We’re trying to recruit people to the legal profession. Like many professions, some of the numbers are declining, where we see more people retiring than entering law school,” DeVaney said.

     One of these prospective students is Dawson Van Ede, a USD student who is currently attending law school. Van Ede was excited at the opportunity of seeing the concepts and processes he’d been studying, being used in actual cases.

     “Honestly, it was a much more fulfilling experience listening to the arguments and reading the cases after having one year of law school experience under my belt. It was cool to see some of the legal concepts and procedural hills I’ve been studying out in the wild, so to speak,” Van Ede said.

     Van Ede noticed that the concepts he had been studying were already making it easier to understand the legal process in practical examples.

     “It was much easier to follow along and even predict what both sides of the case were going to argue about because, for the most part, I knew what the implied legal doctrines were in the case even if they weren’t explicitly stated in the case summary packet,” Van Ede said.

     DeVaney was very appreciative of everyone who interacted with and made the USD session possible this year.

“I’d like to thank the people who came to watch as well as the law school who were very welcoming to us and did a great job of organizing this for us so that we can come every year,” DeVaney said.

      All justices are looking forward to future sessions with the university and DeVaney says they all love coming down each year.

“This is always one of our favorite sessions of the year since we get to come down and interact with the students at USD,” DeVaney said.