Minnesota Court of Appeals Brings Live Oral Arguments to Fergus Falls High School

Nearly 600 students at Kennedy Secondary School in Fergus Falls are about to witness something that almost never happens inside a high school: a real criminal appeal, argued before three sitting appellate judges, with an outcome that carries legal weight across Minnesota.

Judges JaPaul Harris, Elizabeth Bentley, and Anne Rasmusson of the Minnesota Court of Appeals are scheduled to convene at 9:45 a.m. on April 23 to hear oral arguments in State of Minnesota v. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdi. The session is not a mock trial or a classroom simulation; it is the actual proceeding, and the decision that follows will be binding.

What students will watch differs sharply from the courtroom drama most recognize from television. Appellate panels don't recall witnesses or weigh fresh evidence. Judges Harris, Bentley, and Rasmusson will instead press attorneys on whether the correct law was applied at trial, whether the original proceedings contained reversible error, and whether the lower court's legal reasoning holds up. The exchange is formal, precise, and lawyer-to-judge, which is precisely what makes observing it a different kind of civics lesson. By law, the Minnesota Court of Appeals must issue its decision within 90 days of oral arguments, one of the shortest appellate deadlines in the country.

The visit is part of the Court of Appeals' traveling panel program, which brings arguments to communities throughout Greater Minnesota from April through November each year. The stated goals are to keep the court connected to the people it serves and to reduce travel costs for the parties. Traveling panels also regularly schedule educational events alongside their hearings, though a full in-school session with 600 students attending an active criminal appeal is the rarer version of that outreach. Judge Harris, one of the three judges assigned to the Fergus Falls session, also sat on an in-school panel at Open World Learning Community in St. Paul earlier this spring.

After the arguments conclude, the judges will not simply leave. Harris, Bentley, and Rasmusson are scheduled to remain on campus to answer student questions, share lunch, and visit classrooms directly. For members of the public who cannot attend in person, Kennedy Secondary School will live-stream the full arguments on its YouTube channel. A media availability is also planned following the hearing.

School leaders have described the session as real-world learning that integrates civics and law into the curriculum in a way no textbook replicates. For students accustomed to reading about the justice system, watching three judges challenge attorneys in real time, on a case still pending decision, is a different kind of education entirely.