CH 12
Supreme Court
The Role of the Judicial Branch
Take a Virtual Tour of the State Capitol. Click HERE to tour the Supreme Court of Nebraska's Beautiful Capitol.
The ceiling in the Supreme Court Chamber has nearly 8,000 separate pieces! It's made of walnut. The ceiling was cut and built in Boston, Massachusetts with all the decorations. Then it was brought to Lincoln and many small sections were put together here and then those pieces were suspended from another ceiling above.
People used to think there were no nails in the ceiling, but when the ceiling was restored in the 1990's, they discovered there were nails after all! The coffers (squares) and carvings help break and trap sound waves, making the room acoustically perfect—meaning it’s very easy to hear someone talking in here!
Directly above the Supreme Court Chamber is the Law Library. It is one of best-lit areas in the Capitol because of the high-ceilinged windows in the reading room.
The mural, ”The Spirit of the Prairie”, by Elizabeth Dolan, continues that feeling of warmth and light. In this room, not just law students can come to find out about famous cases in Nebraska’s court history. If you were a law student, would the prairie mother in the mural inspire you to look toward the future?
