On Dec. 20, a federal judge will review Georgia lawmakers’ recent efforts to redraw electoral maps to make them more racially in line with federal voting rights laws.

Georgia legislators spent seven contentious days this month in a special legislative redistricting session trying to redraw those maps. It was an exercise that highlighted racial and political animus among the lawmakers. 

If anyone can cut through the tension and resolve the matter, observers say, it’s U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, a 66-year-old Black jurist from Athens who has handed down notable decisions. In 2020, he ruled against Georgia instituting its six week abortion ban. At the time, Jones argued that the U.S. Supreme Court had “repeatedly and unequivocally” upheld Roe v. Wade, although the ban later took effect after the High Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. 

Jones, a former president of the University of Georgia Alumni Association, assigned Georgia lawmakers a hefty task: create more majority-Black districts in their legislative and congressional maps. That would help resolve the state’s violation of Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act, he said in his ruling. He also set out specific instructions on how to resolve the matter, by zeroing in on metro Atlanta and other parts of the state where fixes need to be made.

Jones will hear the redistricting case at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Richard B. Russell Federal Building and United States Courthouse in downtown Atlanta. 

Here are 4 things to know about Jones:

1. He is highly thought of by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

“Judge Jones is very, very highly thought of,” said Retired Atlanta trial attorney Emmet J. Bondurant, who has argued voting rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. “He’s thought of as being very even-tempered and even-handed. Impartial.”

Republican strategist Brian Robinson agreed. “I  think Judge Jones is an excellent and fair jurist and he’s widely respected by people in both parties. He has certainly come down with rulings that have made Democrats unhappy and I think he’s come out with ones that have made many Republicans unhappy. But that’s his job.”

2.  He’s a self-professed “country boy” 

Born in Athens in 1957, Jones is married to Lillian Kincey, an educator and creator and director of the Young Designers program, an afterschool program for budding designers. 

In 2020, Jones told a crowd at Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Breakfast hosted by the University of Georgia in Athens: “A lot of mornings when I walk in my office in the Russell [federal building and United States] courthouse, I stop and I look around the office, and I say to myself, ‘How can a little country boy from … Athens, Georgia be in this spot today?’  

“It’s not because I’m that smart. I got professors that will tell you that,” Jones said, as the audience laughed. “But it’s because Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and people like him …”

Nonetheless, Jones holds two degrees from the University of Georgia: a bachelor’s in business administration  in (1978) and a law degree (in 1987). He is also a member of numerous prestigious legal organizations, including the Old War Horse Lawyer’s Club. 

3. He has a diverse judicial background

Jones was nominated as a U.S. district judge by former President Barack Obama in 2011. Jones was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Feb. 28, 2011 and was sworn in on March 3, 2011.

Judicial background: Before his federal judgeship, Jones served as a Superior Court Judge in the Western Judicial Circuit of Georgia for several years, handling both civil and criminal cases. He also oversaw the Felony Drug Court Program, integrating substance abuse treatment with court supervision.

4. His career has not been without criticism

In December 2019, Jones drew media attention and public outcry after he allowed Georgia to purge 309,000 people from the state’s list of registered voters. Many of the names removed were people who had died or moved out of state.

Have questions? Contact Issac Morgan on X or at [email protected]. Reach Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].

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