Robert Clive Jones Biography

Robert Clive Jones is a senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. From 2011 to2014 he served as the Chief United States District Judge. 

Robert Clive Jones Age

He was born in 1947 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

His Early life, National Guard Service, and accounting career

He was born in Las Vegas. He attended Brigham Young University where he majored in English, accounting, and economic. In 1971 he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and became a CPA soon after graduation.

He later attended UCLA School of Law where he was an editor of the UCLA Law Review, receiving a Juris Doctor. From 1971-1972 he served in the Unies States Army National Guard and then in the United States Air National Guard from 1972 to 1977.

Robert Clive Jones Legal career

He was law clerk to Judge John Clifford Wallace of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1975. He was in private practice from 1976-1982.

Robert Clive Jones Judicial career

District judge

He was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Nevada vacated by David Warner Hagen on June 9, 2003. On October 2, 2003, he was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate and received a commission on November 30, 2003.

On February 1, 2016, he assumed senior status.

Bankruptcy judge

From 1983 to 1999, he was appointed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit as a bankruptcy judge, where he served as a Chief Judge from 1984 to 1993. From 1986-1999, he was appointed to the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit.

He served on the national Judicial Conference Committee on codes of conduct, handling ethics issues for federal judges throughout the nation for six years.

Robert Clive Jones Notable case

He held Nevada’s election law giving voters the ability to select “None of These Candidates” was unconstitutional in August 2012. A 3-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blocked the preliminary injunction that he had issued granting an emergency stay.

Judge Stephen Reinhardt a member of that panel criticized Jones’ handling of the case: “His dilatory tactics appear to serve no purpose other than to seek to prevent the state from taking an appeal of his decision before it prints the ballots…. Such arrogance and assumption of power by one individual is not acceptable in our judicial system.”

The case was ultimately dismissed for lack of standing. In the case of Sevcik v. Sandoval in November 2012, he ruled that same-sex couples do not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. He stated that “a meaningful percentage of heterosexual persons would cease to value the civil institution as highly as they previously had and hence enter into it less frequently.”

A unanimous panel of the Ninth Circuit reversed Jones’s ruling and directed him to promptly enjoin the state of Nevada from “preventing otherwise qualified same-sex couples from marrying,” in October 2014. He issued an order recusing himself the next day.

He was the only Chief Judge from each of the 50 states that did not sign a letter to the leaders of the United States Congress urging them to avoid further sequestration-related budget cuts in August 2013. The letter explained that further cuts would have a “devastating and long-lasting impact” on federal courts.

In September 2015, having cited case law that raised concerns about “exhibit[ing] personal bias,” the Ninth Circuit identified Jones as having “well established and inappropriately strong” feelings against out-of-state attorneys and directed reassignment of one of his cases to a different judge in order “to maintain the appearance of justice.”

The Ninth Circuit reversed a decision by him in a case involving a claim for damages by the federal government against ranchers who grazed their cattle on federal property without a permit in January 2016. The Ninth Circuit stated that it had “expressed concern about Judge Jones’ conduct in several other recent cases.”

In remanding the case to the district court for further proceedings, the panel ordered the assignment of the case to a different judge due to the appearance of bias created by Judge Jones’ conduct during the case.

The Ninth Circuit removed Jones from hearing a case between Burning Man and Pershing County, Nevada in March 2016.