Judge Jones retires

May 14—U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III is ending his nearly 19-year judicial career to serve his alma mater.

Jones, chief judge of the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania, announced Friday that he will become interim president of Dickinson College. He is expected to serve a two-year term, replacing Margee M. Ensign, who Friday announced her resignation as Dickinson College president, effective June 30, 2021.

"It has been a privilege to serve on the bench for nearly two decades, presiding over complex and challenging cases and serving with some of the finest legal minds," Jones said. "It is time to take on a new challenge. Leading Dickinson College, my alma mater, is an unparalleled opportunity I simply could not pass up. I believe strongly in Dickinson's world-class liberal arts education, and I look forward to continuing the momentum of this top institution."

Jones, a Pottsville native, was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 30, 2002.

While on the bench, Jones has presided over several high-profile cases. In 2003, he struck down portions of Shippensburg University's speech code on the basis that it violated the First Amendment's free speech guarantee. In that same year, Jones ruled in a decision later affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's statute assessing milk producers in order to fund advertising, including the milk mustache/got milk campaign, did not infringe the free speech rights of the producers.

In 2006, he ruled that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's ballot access procedures for minor political parties did not violate the Constitution. In 2014, Jones resolved the matter of Whitewood v. Wolf by striking down as unconstitutional Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage.

Likely his most known case was Kitzmiller v. Dover School District in 2005. In that landmark case, he held it was unconstitutional to teach intelligent design within a public school science curriculum. After that ruling, in 2006, Jones was named by Time Magazine as one of its Time 100 most influential people in the world. He also received a Rave Award for Policy from Wired magazine and was the recipient of the first John Marshall Judicial Independence Award, given by the Pennsylvania Bar Association. In 2009, he was the recipient of the Geological Society of America's President's Medal, and in the same year, he was inducted into the George Washington Spirit Society.

Born and raised in Schuylkill County, he is a graduate of Mercersburg Academy, Dickinson College and Penn State Dickinson Law. Jones graduated from Dickinson College in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in political science. In 2006, Dickinson presented Jones, an active alumnus, with an honorary doctorate in law and public policy. He is a former member of the Board of Regents of Mercersburg Academy and has served as an adjunct professor of law at Penn State Dickinson Law.

Before serving on the bench, Jones practiced law in the county. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1990 on the Republican ticket, losing to then-sheriff T. Timothy Holden, a Democrat. In November 1994, then Pennsylvania Governor-elect Tom Ridge named Jones as a co-chair of his transition team. In May 1995, Ridge nominated Jones to serve as chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Before becoming a federal judge, Jones was a lawyer in private practice in his hometown of Pottsville.

In 2013, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts appointed Jones to the Committee on Judicial Security, a standing committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and in 2018, Roberts appointed Jones to the Committee on Space and Facilities.

Jones and his wife, Beth, have two children, including son, John, who also graduated from Dickinson College, Class of 2011, and two grandchildren.