Who appointed John R. Tunheim?

President William J. Clinton appointed John R. Tunheim to the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota in 1995.

Was John R. Tunheim appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

John R. Tunheim was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was John R. Tunheim's confirmation vote?

John R. Tunheim was confirmed by voice vote on December 22, 1995. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

District of Minnesota / Appointed 1995 / Senior status since 2023

John R. Tunheim

Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1995 and confirmed by voice vote, John R. Tunheim is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. He earned a law degree from University of Minnesota Law School in 1980. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1953 · age 73
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1995
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Concordia College 1975 · University of Minnesota Law School 1980
Succeeded: Donald Douglas Alsop
Succeeded by: Jeffrey Marc Bryan

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1995	District of Minnesota succeeded Donald Douglas Alsop	Clinton (D)	Voice vote

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.

Confirmation vote

Voice vote

The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.

Education

Concordia College	B.A.	1975
University of Minnesota Law School	J.D.	1980

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Tunheim was assigned 12,667 district-court cases (1988–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 231 days across 12,148 closed cases.

Personal-injury torts42%

Other civil matters15%

Civil rights8%

Contract8%

Labor & ERISA6%

Prisoner & habeas5%

Other16%

Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.

On appeal

Of 519 of Tunheim’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 399 were affirmed, 52 reversed or vacated, and 68 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.

In our data, Tunheim authored 162 published opinions for the court (1996–2011). Most cited: Piper Jaffray Companies, Inc. v. Nat. Union Fire Ins. Co. (66 citations).

A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Recent & notable rulings

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
1997	Piper Jaffray Companies, Inc. v. Nat. Union Fire Ins. Co.	967 F. Supp. 1148	66
2007	Roble v. Celestica Corp.	627 F. Supp. 2d 1008	64
2008	Scott Ex Rel. Scott v. United States	552 F. Supp. 2d 917	38
1998	In Re Digi International, Inc. Securities Litigation	6 F. Supp. 2d 1089	32
2001	Taylor Investment Corp. v. Weil	169 F. Supp. 2d 1046	25
1996	Mandy v. Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing	940 F. Supp. 1463	24
2010	In Re Levaquin Products Liability Litigation	752 F. Supp. 2d 1071	21
2000	Montgomery v. Independent School District No. 709	109 F. Supp. 2d 1081	20
1999	Simitar Entertainment, Inc. v. Silva Entertainment, Inc.	44 F. Supp. 2d 986	20
1996	Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. v. Rauh Rubber, Inc.	943 F. Supp. 1117	18
1999	Florida State Board of Administration v. Green Tree Financial Corp.	61 F. Supp. 2d 860	17
1999	Morlock v. West Central Education District	46 F. Supp. 2d 892	17
1998	Holowaty v. McDonald's, Corp.	10 F. Supp. 2d 1078	17
1996	Mayer v. University of Minnesota	940 F. Supp. 1474	17
2009	Insignia Systems, Inc. v. News America Marketing In-Store, Inc.	661 F. Supp. 2d 1039	15

Showing the 15 most-cited of 162 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

Who appointed John R. Tunheim?: President William J. Clinton appointed John R. Tunheim to the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota in 1995.
Was John R. Tunheim appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: John R. Tunheim was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was John R. Tunheim's confirmation vote?: John R. Tunheim was confirmed by voice vote on December 22, 1995. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is John R. Tunheim on?: John R. Tunheim is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

30 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).