Justices visit Port Angeles classroom as part of their traveling tour

Published 1:30 am Thursday, May 28, 2026

PORT ANGELES — State Supreme Court Justices Colleen Melody and G. Helen Whitener visited a civics and global issues class at Port Angeles High School on Wednesday, answering questions about their careers, memorable cases, how the court decides which cases to hear and how their personal experiences shape their perspective on the bench.

Teacher Stacey Sanders said students prepared for the justices’ visit by reviewing cases on the court’s spring docket, then pairing up and presenting them to their classmates.

When asked what skill future lawyers most need, the justices pointed in different but complementary directions.

Whitener’s answer: writing. She described a murder case in which a client had sat in the Pierce County Jail for nine months — and was ultimately freed because of a written brief, a motion she called the only case she’s ever won on paper alone.

“You can learn to act,” she said, referring to courtroom advocacy.

“But it’s difficult to learn to write. Make sure you have very good writing skills.”

Melody added her own advice: say yes to everything, and be willing to put in extra effort.

“I can teach you to try a case, to take a deposition, to write a brief,” she said. “What I can’t teach you is to work hard when time is short and the chips are down.”

Whitener joined the court in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, when it conducted its work remotely. She grew up in Trinidad and Tobago and arrived in the United States when she was 16. Her career spans prosecution, public defense, private practice and judicial work at the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals and Pierce County Superior Court before then-Gov. Jay Inslee appointed her to the Supreme Court.

Melody took a different path. A civil rights lawyer who grew up in Spokane and attended the University of Washington, she worked for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division before she returned to Washington in 2015 to build the state Attorney General’s Civil Rights Division from scratch.

Melody, appointed to the court in January, said its diversity is one of its strengths.

“It’s so helpful that we are not the same,” she said. “People will say things constantly that I just haven’t thought of.”

The justices’ North Olympic Peninsula visit is part of the Traveling Court program that began in 1985, and it takes the full nine-member bench outside its home in Olympia and into communities across the state.

On Wednesday, court members also visited classes at Sequim High School, Port Townsend High School and Blue Heron Middle School and met with members of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.

This was Melody’s first Traveling Court.

“I remember having so much energy around legal and current events topics when I was in school,” she said. “I would’ve loved being able to ask somebody who actually has a role in making decisions that are going to affect my life.”

Whitener, who co-chairs the Traveling Court committee and has taught street law at Lincoln High School in Tacoma, said visiting schools and talking to students keeps her grounded.

“It gives me an opportunity to see how hopeful it is,” she said. “They’re so bright. Their hearts and minds are in the right place.”

In an event open to the public today, the full court will hear oral arguments in two cases at Peninsula College’s Little Theater, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., followed by a question-and-answer session. Written arguments for those cases — State v. Martinez-Loyola (No. 104658-8) and Baker v. Seattle Children’s Hospital (No. 104590-4) — can be found at https://tinyurl.com/3tn7mrra.

While in Port Angeles, the justices also will attend a reception to honor former state Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens, who died last year.

Owens was elected to the state Supreme Court in November 2000 and became the seventh woman to serve on the court. Prior to the election, she had served for 19 years as a judge on the Clallam County District Court. She had been the first woman to serve on that court when she was appointed to a new part-time judicial position in 1981, then was elected to six terms.

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.