Steve C. Jones

On December 17, 2019, Jones appeared in multiple news headlines after approving a purge of 309,000 Georgia voters from the state's list of registered voters. Georgia is one of nine states with a law allowing voters to be removed from the list of registered voters for inactivity, with anyone who has not voted or contacted Georgia election officials in nine years being eligible for removal. However Republican Secretary of State for Georgia, Brad Raffensperger was purging voters years before the legal deadline as reported by the Associated Press/San Diego UT Dec. 29, 2019. Lawyers for Fair Fight Action contested this purge, and Fair Fight's CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo argued, "Georgians should not lose their right to vote simply because they have not expressed that right in recent elections." Articles by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution added in context that Fair Fight Action has also been challenging other obstacles that have previously prevented Georgia voters from being able to vote including rejections of absentee ballots, long lines at the polls, and precinct closures that have disproportionately harmed the ability of African Americans to vote in prior years, which could have prevented voters from voting previously and resulted in their placement on the inactive voters list. The list that Jones approved for being purged does not have any included data regarding racial disparities among the affected voters.

After Jones was passed over for the Middle District of Georgia, which serves his hometown of Athens, Jones received consideration for a judgeship on the Atlanta-based United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. On July 14, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Jones to replace Orinda D. Evans on the Northern District of Georgia. His nomination was confirmed by the Senate on February 28, 2011 by a vote of 90 ayes to 0 nays. He received his commission March 3, 2011.

In April 2009, Jones was one of three candidates recommended by Democratic members of the Georgia House delegation to replace judge Hugh Lawson on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. Jones did not receive the nomination, which went to Macon attorney Marc Treadwell in February 2010.

Jones served as a Municipal Court judge in Athens-Clarke County from 1993 to 1995. In 1995, Governor Zell Miller appointed Jones to be a Georgia Superior Court judge for the Western Judicial Circuit, which includes Clarke and Oconee counties.

Jones graduated from Cedar Shoals High School in Athens, Georgia. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from University of Georgia in 1978. He then ran the Child Support Recovery Office for the local District Attorney for six years. Jones attended the University of Georgia School of Law and earned his Juris Doctor in 1987. He went to work as an assistant district attorney.

Steve CarMichael Jones (born January 26, 1957) is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and a former Georgia Superior Court judge.