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John R. Tunheim
John Raymond Tunheim (born 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.
Tunheim was born in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, in 1953. He attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and in 1975 received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and history. Tunheim interned for then Senator Hubert Humphrey while in college, and worked as a Minnesota field representative after graduating. From 1977 to 1980, Tunheim attended the University of Minnesota Law School, where he served as president of the Minnesota Law Review.
After graduating, Tunheim clerked for Judge Earl R. Larson of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. He then worked in private practice for the law firm Oppenheimer, Wolff, Foster, Shepard and Donnelly from 1981 to 1984. 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 (1984–1985), Minnesota state solicitor general (1985–1986), and chief deputy state attorney general (1986–1995). While with the office he tried three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court: Hodgson v. Minnesota and Perpich v. Department of Defense in 1989, and Growe v. Emison in 1992.
In 1994, Tunheim served as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. He 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".
Tunheim has worked with more than a dozen foreign countries to form and revise their constitutions, laws, and court systems. These efforts include the revision of judicial practices to improve human rights in Uzbekistan, restructuring Kosovo's judiciary and constitution, and training judges in Georgia. In 1984, he wrote and published A Scandinavian Saga, a book exploring patterns of immigration in Minnesota.
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. The Senate confirmed his appointment on December 22, 1995, and Tunheim received his commission on December 26. He served on the federal Committee on Court Administration and Case Management from 2000 to 2005, and chaired the committee from 2005 to 2009. Tunheim served as chief judge from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2022, and assumed senior status on December 1, 2023.
In 2014, Tunheim was involved in the sentencing of several members of the Native Mob, a Minnesota- and Wisconsin-based group of approximately 200, noted by the FBI in 2011 as one of the country's largest and most violent Native American gangs. On October 7, 2014, Tunheim sentenced the leader of the Native Mob, Wakinyon "Killa" Wakan Mcarthur, to 43 years in prison on several charges, including conspiracy to participate in racketeering activity and distribution of a controlled substance. He sentenced two other members of the gang to 24 and a third years and 35 years in prison.
In 2016, Tunheim presided over the child pornography case against Danny Heinrich, the man who kidnapped 12-year-old Jacob Wetterling at gunpoint in St. Peter, Minnesota, before sexually assaulting and murdering him in Paynesville, Minnesota, on October 12, 1989. During sentencing, Tunheim told Heinrich that the crime went beyond the child pornography charges to which he pleaded guilty, saying, "you stole the innocence of children in small towns, in the cities of Minnesota and beyond." Tunheim sentenced Heinrich to 20 years in prison.
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John R. Tunheim
John Raymond Tunheim (born 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.
Tunheim was born in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, in 1953. He attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and in 1975 received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and history. Tunheim interned for then Senator Hubert Humphrey while in college, and worked as a Minnesota field representative after graduating. From 1977 to 1980, Tunheim attended the University of Minnesota Law School, where he served as president of the Minnesota Law Review.
After graduating, Tunheim clerked for Judge Earl R. Larson of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. He then worked in private practice for the law firm Oppenheimer, Wolff, Foster, Shepard and Donnelly from 1981 to 1984. 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 (1984–1985), Minnesota state solicitor general (1985–1986), and chief deputy state attorney general (1986–1995). While with the office he tried three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court: Hodgson v. Minnesota and Perpich v. Department of Defense in 1989, and Growe v. Emison in 1992.
In 1994, Tunheim served as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota Law School. He 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".
Tunheim has worked with more than a dozen foreign countries to form and revise their constitutions, laws, and court systems. These efforts include the revision of judicial practices to improve human rights in Uzbekistan, restructuring Kosovo's judiciary and constitution, and training judges in Georgia. In 1984, he wrote and published A Scandinavian Saga, a book exploring patterns of immigration in Minnesota.
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. The Senate confirmed his appointment on December 22, 1995, and Tunheim received his commission on December 26. He served on the federal Committee on Court Administration and Case Management from 2000 to 2005, and chaired the committee from 2005 to 2009. Tunheim served as chief judge from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2022, and assumed senior status on December 1, 2023.
In 2014, Tunheim was involved in the sentencing of several members of the Native Mob, a Minnesota- and Wisconsin-based group of approximately 200, noted by the FBI in 2011 as one of the country's largest and most violent Native American gangs. On October 7, 2014, Tunheim sentenced the leader of the Native Mob, Wakinyon "Killa" Wakan Mcarthur, to 43 years in prison on several charges, including conspiracy to participate in racketeering activity and distribution of a controlled substance. He sentenced two other members of the gang to 24 and a third years and 35 years in prison.
In 2016, Tunheim presided over the child pornography case against Danny Heinrich, the man who kidnapped 12-year-old Jacob Wetterling at gunpoint in St. Peter, Minnesota, before sexually assaulting and murdering him in Paynesville, Minnesota, on October 12, 1989. During sentencing, Tunheim told Heinrich that the crime went beyond the child pornography charges to which he pleaded guilty, saying, "you stole the innocence of children in small towns, in the cities of Minnesota and beyond." Tunheim sentenced Heinrich to 20 years in prison.
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