The American Sociological Association has awarded its 2015 Gordon Hirabayashi Human Rights Book Award to The Contentious History of the International Bill of Human Rights by Professor Christopher N.J. Roberts. The award is given annually by the ASA Section on Human Rights to the author whose book "demonstrates the most thoughtful, competent, or innovative analysis of a theoretical or empirical issue" in the field of human rights.

John R. Tunheim (’80) has succeeded Michael J. Davis (’72) as chief judge of the U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota. Under federal law, the judge who is most senior in service within a district is designated as the chief judge and serves as the court's chief judicial officer for seven years. The leadership change took effect on July 1. Judge Davis will remain with the court as a senior judge.

Sukanya Momsen (’16) has been awarded second place in the American Bar Association Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section's 2014-15 law student writing competition. Her article, "Discharging the Duty to Warn with Multilingual Warning Labels," will appear on the Section's Web site within the next few weeks and will be publicized in its magazine, The Brief. Momsen was also recently named the winner of the Minnesota State Bar Association's 2015 Law Student Award for Excellence in Employment Law.

In a decision issued yesterday in the case of Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the availability of a "disparate impact" cause of action arising under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). In writing the opinion for the 5-4 majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy cited a brief written by Professor Myron Orfield and other housing scholars; the brief described the history of housing segregation in the United States that led to the passage of the FHA in 1968.

The Robina Institute is pleased to present The Sentencing Guidelines Resource Center, a new website that serves as a central source of information related to American sentencing guidelines systems.

In February, the Law School's Robert M. Mankoff Tax Clinic argued a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, representing a client in a filing status dispute with the IRS. Frank DiPietro (’14), working under the supervision of Tax Clinic Professor Kathryn Sedo, presented the argument; he had begun working on the case while a student in the clinic. Last week, the court issued its ruling: a victory for the client and for the clinic's mission and strategy.