FARMINGTON – The Bjorn Auditorium of Mt. Blue Campus was transformed Wednesday into a courtroom for the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and its seven justices.

The Law Court heard oral arguments in three cases as students from Mt. Blue and Mt. Abram high schools listened.

The court was at the school at the invitation of Sen. Thomas Saviello, R-Wilton.

Paul Mills, a Farmington lawyer, said it is the first time Maine’s highest court has met at a public school in Farmington.

Chief Justice Leigh Saufley gave a short list of rules and said students would have a chance to ask questions of attorneys after the court recessed.

The court heard arguments in a case of a driver stopped for a bright taillight by a police officer on an underage drinking detail. The defense attorney said his client contended the officer stopped the vehicle because he suspected underage drinking. The state prosecutor argued the officer was concerned for public safety.

In the second case, the attorney for a defendant convicted of operating under the influence argued his client’s constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches was violated. The defendant claimed he was occasionally operating on the left side of the road and weaving because of potholes.

The state argued that the lower court properly concluded the officer had probable cause to believe the defendant was driving under the influence.

The third case centered around a typographical error in a 2013-14 publication endorsed by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife summarizing the state’s hunting and trapping laws. The defendant, convicted of failing to label a tree stand, claimed in court papers that the publication used the word “and” between “erect and use” a tree stand instead of stating “erect or use” a tree stand, as written in the actual law.

The state argued that the lower court’s decision did not violate the defendant’s due process rights.

Supreme Court justices will inform students of their decisions in each case.

After court adjourned, justices had lunch with some of the students at the Chef’s Table, the culinary arts program restaurant at the school.

“I felt it went very well. It was pretty cool,” student Cole Dorman said. “I think it was great to hear cases like that because we are not exposed to stuff like that in school.”

Fellow student Andrew Haszko agreed.

“It was cool. I have never been in a court room,” he said.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net