Charles Alvin Jones

Charles Alvin Jones (August 27, 1887 – May 22, 1966) was a United States federal judge and a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Born in Newport, Pennsylvania, located in Perry County, Jones attended the Newport schools, Mercersburg Academy and Williams College before receiving an LL.B. from Dickinson School of Law. He was admitted to the Perry County Bar in 1910, but soon went to Pittsburgh and began working for a large law firm. During World War I he drove an ambulance for the French Army and was a U.S. Naval Aviation Ensign from 1918 to 1919. ^[1]

In 1938, he ran for the governorship of Pennsylvania as the endorsed Democratic candidate, but lost to Arthur H. James by nearly 300,000 votes.^[2]

On July 14, 1939, Jones was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated by John Warren Davis. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 18, 1939, and received his commission on July 25, 1939. Jones served in that capacity until his resignation, on December 31, 1944

His resignation from the Federal bench allowed him to take a seat on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on January 3, 1945.^[3] He had been elected to that seat in November and was the only Democrat on the Court. He became Chief Justice in 1956, and served in that position until his retired in 1961, due to his deteriorating vision.^[4] He then was a senior advisor to the Philadelphia law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.^[5]

He was noted for his authorship of the Court's majority opinion overturning the conviction of Steve Jones, a Communist, on state sedition charges.^[6]

He died in Wynnewood, Montgomery County, on May 21, 1966.^[7]

He was survived by his wife, Isabella Arrott; they were married in 1918.^[8]He was also survived by a son and daughter. Another son, Charles Alvin Jones, Jr. was killed during World War II while serving as a Marine aviator in the Pacific.^[9]

References

• Morgan, Alfred L. "The Significance of Pennsylvania's 1938 Gubernatorial Election", Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 102, No. 2, April, 1978. https://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/viewFile/43435/43156 Accessed March 27, 2015
• Pittsburgh Press, May 22, 1966, Section 3, pg.3. "Justice Jones Dies at 78". https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=djft3U1LymYC&dat=19660522&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
• "Historical List of Supreme Court Justices" website of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, http://www.pacourts.us/learn/history/historical-list-of-supreme-court-justices, Retrieved March 28, 2015.
• Closed for Business: The Story of Bankers Trust Company During the Great Depression", A Digital History Project of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. http://digitalhistory.hsp.org/bnktr/person/charles-alvin-jones Retrieved March 28, 2015.
• "'Good American Couple' Describes Candidate and Wife", Pittsburgh Press, February 27, 1938, pg. 2.
• Squadron Historical Summary, on the website of Marine Bombing Squadron 611. http://www.vmb611.com/summary.htm Retrieved March 28, 2015.
• "Charles Alvin Jones", Gettysburg Compiler, October 22, 1938. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2246&dat=19381001&id=GCgzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bQAGAAAAIBAJ&pg=3993,4421981&hl=en Retrieved March 28, 2015.

Sources

• Charles Alvin Jones at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.