Judge John E. Jones III commenced his service as a United States District Judge on August 2, 2002. He is the 21st judge to sit in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Judge Jones was appointed to his current position by President George W. Bush in February 2002, and was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on July 30, 2002.

Judge Jones was born and raised in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of the Mercersburg Academy, Dickinson College, and the Dickinson School of Law of The Pennsylvania State University.

In 1980 Judge Jones began his legal career as a law clerk to the President Judge of Schuylkill County, the Honorable Guy A. Bowe. Subsequently, he engaged in the private practice of law in Pottsville, Pennsylvania until the time of his elevation to the federal bench. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Jones had numerous public and private affiliations. These included service as Pennsylvania state attorney for the D.A.R.E. program (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), and as chairman of a local foundation which awarded scholarships to high school students based upon vocal music ability. He has served as an Assistant Scoutmaster, and was extensively involved with both the local and national Boy Scouts of America.

In November, 1994, Pennsylvania Governor-elect Tom Ridge named Judge Jones as a co-chair of his transition team. Subsequently, in May 1995 Governor Ridge nominated Judge Jones to serve as Chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Judge Jones served as Chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board for a total of seven years and two months, until he assumed his current duties. While heading that agency he managed a workforce of over four thousand people, and administered a budget in excess of one billion dollars. Judge Jones also gained national attention in the area of alcohol education, with particular emphasis on underage drinking on college campuses, as well as drunk driving. In November 2000, Judge Jones’ contributions were recognized when he received the Government Leadership Award from the National Commission Against Drunk Driving in Washington, D.C. At the time of his appointment to the bench, Judge Jones was a board member, and president-elect, of the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association (NABCA).

In 2006 Judge Jones received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the Dickinson School of Law, as well as an honorary doctorate in law and public policy from Dickinson College, where he was recently recognized as one of the twenty five most influential graduates in the College’s over two hundred and twenty year history. In 2007 he received an honorary doctorate in law from Muhlenberg College. In May, 2006 Judge Jones was named by Time Magazine as one of its Time 100, the one hundred most influential people in the world. Judge Jones has also received a Rave Award for Policy from Wired Magazine. In 2006 Judge Jones was the recipient of the first John Marshall Judicial Independence Award, which will be presented annually by the Pennsylvania Bar Association. In 2005 the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania appointed Judge Jones to the Pennsylvania Commission on Judicial Independence. Judge Jones also sits on the Board of Directors of the Federal Judges Association.

Judge Jones has presided over several noteworthy and high profile cases. In 2003 Judge Jones struck down portions of Shippensburg University’s speech code on the basis that they violated the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee. In that same year Judge 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 2005 Judge Jones presided over the landmark case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District, after which he held that it was unconstitutional to teach intelligent design within a public school science curriculum. In 2006 he ruled that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s ballot access procedures for minor political parties did not violate the Constitution. In 2007 Judge Jones and the Kitzmiller case were featured in the two-hour Nova special “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial,” televised nationally by PBS. Judge Jones has also appeared as a guest on national television shows such as Today on NBC,
and the NewsHour on PBS.

Judge Jones resides in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. He has been married to his wife Beth Ann since 1982. They are the parents of daughter Meghan, and son John.