Judge Jonathan Jones II ’77 speaks to First Year Seminar
Judge John Edward Jones III ’77 visited the first-year seminar Politicalization of Science on Wednesday, Sept. 23rd. To thirteen first-year students, Jones gave a presentation and answered questions about a case he presided over in 2005: Kitzmiller v. Dover. This particular case dealt with teaching intelligent design- the theory that life cannot have been created by chance and was designed by an intelligent entity- in public high schools.
Jones said that the most important question in the case was, “Is intelligent design science or religiously based?”. Jones stated that he had to harness a wide range of judicial precedent to decide the case including interpretation of the establishment clause as well as the Lemon Test. When asked how Jones was equipped to decide a case so deeply rooted in science he replied, “We (judges) use general scientific principles to decide what science is: Is it generally accepted in the scientific community? Has it been peer reviewed? Is it testable? Intelligent design failed those criteria”.
After Jones decided that teaching intelligent design in public school was unconstitutional in December of 2005, Jones provided anecdotes of his experiences once the decision was released. Jones said, “I had U.S. Marshall protection for two weeks for me and my family…I had religious death threats, if you can imagine it”.
A Republican, Jones explained the role of politics in the judicial system, stating “It (politics) plays no role whatsoever; we (judges) call them the way we see them, that’s what good judges do. I don’t do politics anymore”. Jones also said that “Nothing prepared me better to sit in that case than my education here at Dickinson College”.
Mckenzie Rambusch ’19 described Jones’s presentation as “very interesting.”
“I thoroughly enjoyed his commentary that even though he has a Republican background, that doesn’t influence his judgement in the courtroom,” Rambusch said.
Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Peter Sak, who teaches the seminar, said that when he first attempted to reach out to Jones about speaking to the class he saw it as “a shot in the dark”, but was glad Jones was able to come.
For additional information about Kitzmiller v. Dover or the controversy surrounding intelligent design, Jones recommended the following texts: Monkey Girl by Edward Humes, 40 Days and 40 Nights by Matthew Chapman, and The Devil in Dover by Lauri Lebo.
