Robert E. Jones

Robert Edward Jones (July 5, 1927 – March 29, 2025) was an American politician and judge in Oregon. He served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon in Portland. A Portland native, he previously served as the 84th justice of the Oregon Supreme Court and as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives.

Background Jones was born in Portland, Oregon, on July 5, 1927. There he attended Grant High School. After high school, Jones joined the United States Naval Reserve and attended the University of Hawaiʻi where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949.

Jones died on March 29, 2025, at the age of 97. He resigned, however, before the special session held later that year. Jones resigned in order to become a circuit judge in Multnomah County, where he remained until 1982. He replaced Jacob Tanzer who had resigned. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft had challenged the law based on federal laws concerning controlled substances. to 2004 he was the presiding judge of the case involving Mike Hawash of the Portland Seven in which Hawash received a seven-year sentence for conspiring to fight in Afghanistan for the Taliban against United States forces. Then in 2005, he ruled against the Bush administration in their efforts to reduce protection of gray wolves under the Endangered Species Act.

Other service Jones was a former president of the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association, an adjunct member of the Lewis & Clark Law School faculty, part of the National Judicial College, and a faculty member of the American Academy of Judicial Education.