News Item
Judge JaPaul Harris takes oath of office for Minnesota Court of Appeals
Posted: Friday, June 14, 2024
In a formal investiture ceremony this afternoon at the Landmark Center in St. Paul, Ramsey County District Court Judge JaPaul Harris took the oath of office to join the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
Senior Judge Tanya Bransford introduced Judge Harris and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson administered the oath. Immediately afterward, Judge Harris’ family helped him put on his black judicial robe—a traditional part of formal investiture ceremonies.
Prior to his appointment to the Court of Appeals by Gov. Tim Walz, Judge Harris served as a district court judge in Ramsey County and as a judicial referee in Hennepin County.
As a judge, Harris has served as the co-chair of the Minnesota Supreme Court Committee for Equality and Justice, where he spearheaded the development and implementation of a diversity, equity, and inclusion training requirement for all Judicial Branch employees and judicial officers. He also developed and implemented statewide implicit bias jury instruction and has worked on numerous initiatives to improve access to Minnesota courts.
Before being appointed to the bench, Judge Harris was a supervising attorney of the Senior Law Project at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid; he also worked with Minneapolis Public Schools and was a staff attorney at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services working in its Housing Equality Law Project.
Judge Harris also served on the St. Paul Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity Commission from 2007 to 2018, including as its chair from 2010 to 2018. In 2018, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter signed a proclamation declaring Jan. 30, 2018, “JaPaul Harris Day.”
Judge Harris is a former adjunct professor at Mitchell Hamline College of Law and currently is an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. He is a 2000 graduate of Syracuse University and a 2003 graduate of Hamline University School of Law (now Mitchell Hamline School of Law).