The Western Geologist

John Jones, the U.S. District judge who presided over the Kitzmiller case, was recently interviewed by the Philadephia Inquirer about his thoughts on judicial independence, and some of the criticisms he encountered based on his ruling in the Dover case.

One particularly strident commentary piece by conservative columnist Phyllis Schlafly, published a week after the ruling, really set Jones off.

Schlafly wrote that Jones, a career Republican appointed to the federal bench by President Bush in 2002, wouldn't be a judge if not for the "millions of evangelical Christians" who supported Bush in 2000. His ruling, she wrote, "stuck the knife in the backs of those who brought him to the dance in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District."

"The implication was that I should throw one for the home team," Jones said. "There were people who said during trial they could not accept, and did not anticipate, that a Republican judge appointed by a Republican president could do anything other than rule in the favor of the defendants."

I blogged about Schlafly's article in January. Schalfly's comments were despicable, plain and simple. Jones' loyalty should rightly be to U.S. law and not to any of his (former?) supporters.