The federal courthouse in Minneapolis now bears the name of a Minnesota judge who went on to become the first woman to serve on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
A new sign noting the now-designated Diana E. Murphy U.S. Courthouse was unveiled Wednesday by GSA Administrator Emily Murphy, Chief U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, judges of the 8th Circuit, and other federal judges from Minnesota and across the country.
Murphy’s family members also were in attendance for the dedication.
Murphy, who in 1980 was the first woman named as a U.S. District Court judge in Minnesota, was appointed to the federal appellate bench 1994 and served in that post until she died last year at the age of 84.
Murphy also spent time as a state trial judge and lawyer.
She was also instrumental in the design of the 1997 federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, the GSA noted.
The GSA’s Murphy described her as a “trailblazer in the legal profession with a passion for her community and home state,” while Tunheim noted that the courthouse was the second in the nation to be named “solely after a distinguished female judge,” according to the GSA.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar also weighed in, with Klobuchar calling the courthouse naming a “fitting tribute” to someone she saw as both a “mentor and friend,” the GSA said.
In a landmark case, Murphy ruled in 1994 that the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe retained hunting and fishing rights outlined in an 1837 treaty. The state of Minnesota appealed, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Murphy’s decision.