John R. Tunheim

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title: "John R. Tunheim" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1953-births", "living-people", "20th-century-american-judges", "20th-century-american-lawyers", "21st-century-american-judges", "concordia-college-(moorhead,-minnesota)-alumni", "judges-of-the-united-states-district-court-for-the-district-of-minnesota", "lawyers-from-saint-paul,-minnesota", "people-from-thief-river-falls,-minnesota", "united-states-district-court-judges-appointed-by-bill-clinton", "university-of-minnesota-law-school-alumni", "university-of-minnesota-law-school-faculty"] description: "American judge (born 1953)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Tunheim" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American judge (born 1953) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	John R. Tunheim
image	Tunheim 060.20x24.jpg
caption	U.S. District Court Judge John R. Tunheim
office	Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota
term_start	December 1, 2023
office1	Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota
term_start1	July 1, 2015
term_end1	June 30, 2022
predecessor1	Michael J. Davis
successor1	Patrick J. Schiltz
office2	Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota
term_start2	December 26, 1995
term_end2	December 1, 2023
appointer2	Bill Clinton
predecessor2	Donald Alsop
successor2	Jeffrey Bryan
birth_date
birth_place	Thief River Falls, Minnesota
education	Concordia College (BA)
University of Minnesota (JD)
::

| honorific-prefix = | name = John R. Tunheim | honorific-suffix = | image = Tunheim 060.20x24.jpg | alt = | caption = U.S. District Court Judge John R. Tunheim | office = Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota | term_start = December 1, 2023 | term_end = | office1 = Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota | term_start1 = July 1, 2015 | term_end1 = June 30, 2022 | predecessor1 = Michael J. Davis | successor1 = Patrick J. Schiltz | office2 = Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota | term_start2 = December 26, 1995 | term_end2 = December 1, 2023 | appointer2 = Bill Clinton | predecessor2 = Donald Alsop | successor2 = Jeffrey Bryan | pronunciation = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Thief River Falls, Minnesota | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = | otherparty = | height = | spouse = | partner = | relations = | children = | parents = | mother = | father = | education = Concordia College (BA) University of Minnesota (JD) | salary = | net_worth = | committees = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = John Raymond Tunheim (born September 30, 1953) is an American lawyer who serves as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Education and career

Tunheim was born in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, in 1953. He attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1975. He then attended the University of Minnesota Law School, receiving his Juris Doctor in 1980. From 1980 to 1981, Tunheim was a law clerk for Judge Earl R. Larson of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. From 1981 to 1984, he was in private practice in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He then joined the Office of the State Attorney General of Minnesota, serving as an assistant state attorney general and the manager of the Public Affairs Litigation Division from 1984 to 1985, as Minnesota state solicitor general from 1985 to 1986, and as chief deputy state attorney general from 1986 to 1995. He was an adjunct professor in the University of Minnesota Law School in 1994. Tunheim also chaired the Assassination Records Review Board, which oversaw the collection of records relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, from 1994 to 1995.

Tunheim was interviewed for the 2021 documentary JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass. In 2025 he testified at the second hearing of the House Oversight Committee's "Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets".

Federal judicial service

On July 10, 1995, President Bill Clinton nominated Tunheim to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota vacated by Donald Alsop. Tunheim was confirmed by the Senate on December 22, 1995, and received his commission on December 26. He served as chief judge from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2022. He assumed senior status on December 1, 2023. He has sat by designation on both the Eighth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals. Tunheim served on the federal judiciary's Committee on Court Administration and Case Management from 2000 to 2009, and chaired it from 2005.{{cite web| title=The Honorable John R. Tunheim| url=https://www.americanconference.com/22nd-annual-conference-drug-medical-device-litigation/speakers/the-honorable-john-r-tunheim/| date=December 4, 2017| publisher=American Conference Institute| access-date=May 28, 2018

References

References

1. United States Senate. (February 1, 1994). "Hearing before the Committee on Governmental Affairs".
2. Nicole M. Moen, THE FEDERAL LAWYER, December 2015, p. 35, https://fedbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Tunheim-Hon-John-R-pdf-3.pdf
3. Steller, Chris. "Minnesota judge: CIA 'probably misled' panel he led on JFK assassination".
4. Hopewell, John. (October 12, 2019). "AGC Television Picks up Worldwide on Oliver Stone's 'JFK: Destiny Betrayed'". [[Variety (magazine).
5. (20 May 2025). "Witnesses accuse CIA of obstructing JFK investigations". NewsNation.
6. {{FJC Bio
7. "Lawyers in Brisbane".

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