Jim Jones (judge)
Jim Jones is the former Chief Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court and a former Attorney General of Idaho.
Born in Twin Falls, Idaho, Jones was raised on a farm near Eden. He attended Idaho State College in Pocatello for a year and transferred to the University of Oregon in Eugene, graduating in 1964 with a B.A. in political science. Jones attended Northwestern University near Chicago and received his J.D. from its School of Law in 1967. He served as an artillery officer in the U.S. Army in Vietnam in the late 1960s and received several decorations, including the Army Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star.
Jones served as a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Len Jordan in the early 1970s. Afterwards he practiced law in Jerome and Boise.
Jones entered politics in 1978 as a candidate for Congress from the state's 2nd district. He was defeated in the Republican primary by incumbent George Hansen, and lost again in the 1980 primary to Hansen.
Jones was elected the state's attorney general as a Republican in 1982, and was re-elected unopposed in 1986. He ran for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jim McClure in 1990, but was defeated in the primary by Congressman Larry Craig, and returned to his private law practice in 1991.
Jones was elected to the Idaho Supreme Court in May 2004, unopposed in a nonpartisan election to fill the open seat of retiring justice Wayne Kidwell. He was unopposed for re-election in May 2010 and became chief justice in August 2015 by a vote of his peer justices. Jones retired from active service in January 2017.
