# UMN Law *Law school of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, whose graduates recur in Minnesota's Attorney General's office, county attorney's office, and state and federal courts.* The University of Minnesota Law School belongs to the public [[University of Minnesota]] in [[Minneapolis]]. It awards four degrees: the Juris Doctor, the Master of Laws, a Master of Science in Patent Law and the Doctor of Juridical Science.[^1] Wikipedia counts about 13,000 living alumni, 275 of them sitting as federal or state judges.[^1] The office of [[Attorney General of Minnesota]] gives the clearest measure of the school's reach. The office's own history lists UMN Law graduates Robert W. Mattson Sr. (1965–1968), [[Douglas M. Head]] (1969–1971), [[Warren Spannaus]] (1971–1983) and [[Mike Hatch]] (1999–2007).[^2] The Legislative Reference Library records [[Walter Mondale]] (1960–1964) and Hubert H. "Skip" Humphrey III (1983–1999) as UMN Law graduates.[^3][^4] The office's biography of [[Keith Ellison]], Attorney General from 2019, names the same school.[^5] Wikipedia states that the school's graduates held the office without interruption from 1929 until 2007.[^1] On January 14, 2026, the [[United States Department of Justice]] announced a lawsuit against the State in release No. 26-21, titled *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*.[^6] The school's one entry in the at-issue record concerns a law-school fellowship whose race-and-sex eligibility bar was dropped after a federal complaint was filed.[^28] ## Who ### Attorneys General The Legislative Reference Library lists Mondale as Attorney General from 1960 to 1964 and as a UMN Law graduate.[^3] The law library keeps an Attorney General gallery in its Mondale legacy collection.[^7] Mondale, a 1956 graduate, later served as [[Vice President of the United States]]. In 2002 the school named its building Walter F. Mondale Hall for him.[^1] Hatch, a member of the DFL, was elected Attorney General in 1998.[^8] As Attorney General he defended Minnesota's judicial "announce clause" in *RPM v. White*, 536 U.S. 765, which the Supreme Court struck down on June 27, 2002.[^9] Hatch held the office through 2007.[^2] On November 7, 2006, he lost the [[governor]]'s race to Tim Pawlenty by about one percentage point.[^10] Of the officeholders named here, the cited sources record a party affiliation only for Hatch. Ellison graduated from the school in 1990 and has a faculty profile there.[^11] The project's time table traces his path from that degree to defense counsel in *State v. Knutson* (1995), the Minnesota House (2002) and Congress, to which he was elected on November 7, 2006.[^12] He was elected Attorney General on November 6, 2018, defeating Doug Wardlow,[^13] and took office in 2019.[^5] On May 26, 2020, Governor Walz appointed him lead prosecutor in the George Floyd case, displacing Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman from that role.[^14] ### Judges [[Miles Lord]], a 1948 graduate and a former Minnesota Attorney General, was appointed to the federal bench by [[Lyndon Johnson]] in 1966. He later presided over *Rajender*.[^15] Diana Murphy was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in July 1994. She became the first woman on that court, and the project's time table records her UMN Law background.[^16] Chief Judge [[John R. Tunheim]], class of 1980, gave the school's 2022 commencement address.[^17] A *Minnesota Law* magazine story profiles four alumni then sitting on the Minnesota Supreme Court.[^18] Judge David Doty wrote *The Trial Judge after Wards Cove: Shifting Burdens, Shifting Rules* for the school's journal *Law and Inequality*, volume 8.[^19] Two graduates have clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court. Kyle D. Hawkins (2009) clerked for Justice [[Samuel Alito]] in the 2013 Term. Amy L. Bergquist (2007) clerked for Justice [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]] in the 2010 Term.[^1] ### Hennepin County Attorneys [[Tom Johnson]], class of 1970, was [[Hennepin County Attorney]] from 1979 to 1991, according to the school's 2020 notice of his death.[^20] According to Wikipedia, [[Amy Klobuchar]], who held the office from January 5, 1999, to January 3, 2007, earned her J.D. in 1985 at the [[University of Chicago Law School]] rather than at UMN Law.[^21] According to Wikipedia, [[Mary Moriarty]] graduated from UMN Law in 1989 and was Hennepin County's chief public defender from 2014 to 2021. She took office as county attorney on January 2, 2023, for a term ending January 4, 2027. On August 7, 2025, she announced that she would not seek a second term.[^22] ### Faculty Catharine MacKinnon taught at the school from 1982 to 1984.[^23] Professor Beverly Balos's scholarly works are held in the school's repository.[^24] Wikipedia names Professor William McGeveran, interim dean for 2023–24, as the school's twelfth dean.[^1] ## What The school's first home was Pattee Hall, which bears the name of its first dean, William S. Pattee (1888–1911). It moved to Fraser Hall in 1928 and in 1978 to the building first called the Law Center. That building was expanded in 1999–2001 on the west bank of the campus.[^1] In 1982 the school and Harvard Law School jointly founded the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI).[^1] Students edit the *Minnesota Law Review* and *Law and Inequality*, among other journals.[^25] The school publishes its faculty scholarship and historical records in an online repository.[^26] ## How much Wikipedia reports 2020–2021 tuition of $43,704 for Minnesota residents and $52,560 for non-residents. It also reports that more than 95% of students receive financial aid.[^1] ## How many According to Wikipedia, the school enrolls 704 professional students with a student-to-faculty ratio of 8:1. It reports a five-year average bar passage rate of 96.91% and lists 24 clinics.[^1] ## In the at-issue record The Department of Justice's release No. 26-21 of January 14, 2026, announces the suit against Minnesota under the title *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*. The release states that Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the case as a matter of general public importance.[^6] The project's catalogue of U.S.-government "regime" usages finds no other U.S. state so described. The project's time table lists Ellison, a 1990 graduate, as a defendant in the 2026 federal action. The legal backdrop includes *[[Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services]]*, 605 U.S. 303 (2025). In that case the Supreme Court held that [[Title VII]]'s disparate-treatment provision "draws no distinctions between majority-group plaintiffs and minority-group plaintiffs." The Court also rejected the Sixth Circuit's heightened "background circumstances" rule.[^27] At-issue entry AI-Anoka-070 (rank 70) concerns the UMN Law Jones Day Fellowship. Drawing on equalprotect.org filings, the entry records that the fellowship dropped its race-and-sex eligibility bar after a federal complaint was filed. The same entry records that the [[Carlson School]] signed a resolution agreement on February 19, 2026. It anchors these events to the January 2025 presidential action *Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity*.[^28] The same dossier sequence includes an Office for Civil Rights complaint against the University's BIPOC Design Justice Initiative. That complaint alleges that the program excluded white and Asian students, and the dossier dates the opening of an investigation to March 13, 2025.[^29] The record shows the order of the complaint and the eligibility change. It does not establish why the change was made. ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *University of Minnesota Law School* (rev. 1378396801, retrieved 2026-10-27) — degrees, alumni and judge counts, 1929–2007 Attorney General statement, building history, Mondale Hall (2002), CALI, clerkships, dean, tuition, enrollment, bar passage, clinics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Minnesota_Law_School [^2]: Office of the Minnesota Attorney General, *Attorney General history* — Mattson (1965–1968), Head (1969–1971), Spannaus (1971–1983), Hatch (1999–2007), UMN Law. https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/AGHistory.asp [^3]: Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, *Walter F. Mondale* — Attorney General 1960–1964; UMN Law. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=10720 [^4]: Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, *Hubert H. "Skip" Humphrey III* — Attorney General 1983–1999; UMN Law. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=10484 [^5]: Office of the Minnesota Attorney General, *Biography* — Keith Ellison, Attorney General 2019–present; UMN Law. https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Bio.asp [^6]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, release No. 26-21 (Jan. 14, 2026) — the suit; Bondi certification. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime [^7]: University of Minnesota Law Library, *Mondale legacy — Attorney General gallery* — the library's Attorney General collection. https://librarycollections.law.umn.edu/mondale-legacy/gallery/demo/ag.html [^8]: Office of the Minnesota Attorney General, *Home page* — Hatch (DFL) elected Attorney General, 1998. https://www.ag.state.mn.us/ [^9]: Supreme Court of the United States, *RPM v. White*, 536 U.S. 765 (June 27, 2002) — announce clause struck. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/536/765/ [^10]: Minnesota Secretary of State, *Historical election data* — 2006 governor's race, Pawlenty over Hatch. https://www.sos.state.mn.us/election-administration-campaigns/data-maps/historical-election-data/ [^11]: University of Minnesota Law School, *Keith Ellison* (faculty profile) — UMN Law '90. https://law.umn.edu/profiles/keith-ellison [^12]: U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian, *Ellison, Keith* — elected to Congress Nov. 7, 2006. https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/12957 [^13]: Wikipedia contributors, *Keith Ellison* — elected Attorney General Nov. 6, 2018, defeating Doug Wardlow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Ellison [^14]: CBS News, *Keith Ellison to lead George Floyd case prosecution* (May 2020) — Walz appointment, May 26, 2020. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/keith-ellison-george-floyd-case-prosecution/ [^15]: Federal Judicial Center, *Lord, Miles William* — UMN Law 1948; former Minnesota Attorney General; appointed 1966. https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/lord-miles-william [^16]: Federal Judicial Center, *Murphy, Diana E.* — Eighth Circuit nomination, July 1994. https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/murphy-diana-e [^17]: University of Minnesota Law School, *Chief Judge John R. Tunheim '80 to Deliver 2022 Commencement Address* (Apr. 4, 2022) — Tunheim, class of 1980. https://law.umn.edu/news/2022-04-04-chief-judge-john-r-tunheim-80-deliver-2022-commencement-address [^18]: *Minnesota Law* magazine, *Supremely Situated* — four alumni on the Minnesota Supreme Court. https://minnesotalawmag.law.umn.edu/stories/meet-the-four-minnesota-law-alums-on-their-state-s-highest-court [^19]: *Law and Inequality*, vol. 8, iss. 2, *The Trial Judge after Wards Cove: Shifting Burdens, Shifting Rules* (Judge David Doty) — the article. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/lawineq/vol8/iss2/4/ [^20]: University of Minnesota Law School, *Tom Johnson '70, former Hennepin County Attorney, dies at 75* (June 17, 2020) — county attorney 1979–1991. https://law.umn.edu/news/2020-06-17-tom-johnson-70-former-hennepin-county-attorney-dies-75 [^21]: Wikipedia contributors, *Amy Klobuchar* — Hennepin County Attorney 1999–2007; University of Chicago J.D. 1985. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Klobuchar [^22]: Wikipedia contributors, *Mary Moriarty* — UMN Law 1989; public defender 2014–2021; county attorney from Jan. 2, 2023; Aug. 7, 2025 announcement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Moriarty [^23]: University of Minnesota Law School, *Catharine MacKinnon* (faculty record) — faculty 1982–1984. https://law.umn.edu/profiles/catharine-mackinnon [^24]: University of Minnesota Law Scholarship Repository, *Beverly Balos — faculty articles* — scholarly works. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/faculty_articles/?q=balos [^25]: University of Minnesota Law Scholarship Repository, *Minnesota Law Review* — the journal. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/minnlrev/ [^26]: University of Minnesota Law School, *Scholarship Repository* — faculty scholarship and historical records. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/ [^27]: Supreme Court of the United States, *Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services*, 605 U.S. 303 (2025) — Title VII holding; "background circumstances" rule rejected. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1039_c0n2.pdf [^28]: The White House, *Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity* (presidential action, Jan. 2025) — anchor of at-issue entry AI-Anoka-070. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/ [^29]: Equal Protection Project, *OCR Complaint — University of Minnesota BIPOC Design Justice Initiative* (Nov. 2024) — the complaint's allegations. https://equalprotect.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/OCR-Complaint-University-of-Minnesota-BIPOC-Design-Justice-Initiative-1.pdf