One person with a lifelong interest in law and justice witnessed the election of Barack Obama with a deeply personal sense of fulfillment.

Retired U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Nathaniel R. Jones said of that evening, “You can’t overestimate the importance to the future of our country as it relates to civil rights and the rule of law. Barack Obama—in addition to his qualities, and there are many—comes to the Office of the President with a deep respect for the rule of law, and how law has shaped our society. Right now, in the immediate days after the election, this may not be as apparent as it should be. But to people who have spent their lives immersed in our legal system, his election is of historic importance.”

Judge Jones, who is a former Co-Chair of the Board of the Freedom Center (and an honorary member today), continues the practice of law as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer with Blank Rome LLP. You quickly discover in any conversation with him that law is the perspective that shapes and colors his outlook on life.

Judge Nathaniel Jones

And no wonder. Before his appointment to the appellate court, Judge Jones served as General Counsel to the NAACP from 1969 to 1979. So he knows a thing or two about the legal history of civil rights, particularly the evolution of equal protection and voting rights as enshrined in the 14^th and 15^th Amendments enacted in the years after the Civil War.

And voting, to Judge Jones, is ultimately what politics and Barack Obama’s election are all about.

“Going back many decades, the people who battled in courtrooms for voting rights had a simple belief: ‘vote-less people are hopeless people.’ One of the most fundamentally important struggles throughout the last half of the 19^th Century and most of the 20^th Century was the effort to make sure the 15^th Amendment was upheld, enabling all Americans the right to cast their ballot. It’s a battle that is still going on today.”

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