John E. Jones III
John E. Jones III is a Republican judge from Pennsylvania. He was appointed by President George W. Bush and has presided over many cases.[1] One such case, the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, was brought by the parents of 11 students from the Dover school district to remove Intelligent Design from district classrooms. Jones ruled that it should be removed, and this has sparked a controversy. Ann Coulter called Judge Jones a "hack."[1]
Jones accused the School Board in the Kitzmiller case of deceitful tactics, but of course this was his opinion, and not prosecuted.[2] Legal scholars Jay D. Wexler and Arnold H. Loewy questioned Judge Jones's ruling. [3] Also, the WorldNetDaily stated: "A historic judicial ruling against intelligent design theory hailed as a "broad, stinging rebuke" and a "masterpiece of wit, scholarship and clear thinking" actually had material in its "finding of facts" that was "cut and pasted" from a brief by ACLU lawyers and includes many of their provable errors, contends the Seattle-based Discovery Institute." [4][5][6] The Discovery Institute states that Judge Jones followed the ACLU and ignored contrary facts. [7] Information published by the Discovery Institute is contested.[8]
After the trial, Judge Jones signed an order that prohibited any appeal of his decision and awarded over $2 million in legal fees to the ACLU's side.[Citation Needed]
Jones later made statements making clear that he knew that he had engaged in judicial activism in the case.[9]
Dickinson College Commencement Address
In December 2006, a Discovery Institute blogger suggested that Judge Jones plagiarized a scholar's book in his Dickinson College commencement speech and gave a comparison of the speech and the scholar's work.[10] The source is currently acknowledged in the online published text of the speech.[11]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Cohn, Robert A. Judge explains 'intelligent design' ruling St. Louis Jewish Light January 1, 2008
- ↑ "n7 ... In fact, one consistency among the Dover School Board members' testimony, which was marked by selective memories and outright lies under oath, as will be discussed in more detail below, is that they did not think they needed to be knowledgeable about ID because it was not being taught to the students. We disagree." Judge John E. Jones III, Republican, in Kitzmiller v. Dover Independent School District, 400 F. Supp. 2d 707, 727.
- ↑ http://www.evolutionnews.org/2007/03/kitzmiller_attorney_uses_harsh.html
- ↑ http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53330
- ↑ http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=3829
- ↑ http://www.evolutionnews.org/2007/01/a_response_to_darwinist_defend.html
- ↑ http://www.evolutionnews.org/2005/12/judge_jones_follows_aclu_ignor.html
- ↑ For a rebuttal argument, see here
- ↑ http://www.evolutionnews.org/2007/11/judge_jones_admits_the_activis.html
- ↑ Did Judge Jones Plagiarize Scholar's Book in Dickinson College Commencement Speech? (Robert Crowther, 2006)
- ↑ Judge John E. Jones, Commencement Address (Dickinson College, May 19-21, 2006). Accessed April 21, 2007.
