(Via Panda’s Thumb) The Lutheran has an interview with Judge Jones, the conservative Republican and devout Lutheran who ruled against intelligent design in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School Board this year. There is little new in the interview, but it does provide some nice succinct quotes.

On whether he should have ruled on the validity of ID as science:

“Both sides asked me to render a decision on that precise issue,” he said. “Had I not done so, there was every chance that this same issue would have arisen before another tribunal. I didn’t think a school district somewhere else should be exposed to the costs and fees that the Dover School District ended up paying (more than $1 million) as a result of my ducking that issue.”

On whether he had “stabbed in the back” the Republicans who appointed him:

“The decision had nothing to do with politics and polls,” he said. “It is entirely appropriate for the executive and legislative branches of government to respond to the will of the people. But as a federal judge, I’m charged with focusing on legal precedents, the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution. My work has everything to do with reviewing the evidence as presented in the courtroom and legal precedents, such as Supreme Court tests used in previous establishment clause cases.”

On being called an “activist” judge:

“If I had disregarded the facts and invented a new test, other than those tests offered by the Supreme Court, that would have made me an activist judge. These values are not Republican or Democratic. They are American values.”

Apropos my previous post on politics:

“I have a great concern about the extreme ways people react to difficult issues,” Jones said. “We need to find a way to elevate the debate about difficult issues in our culture. The discussion is frequently marked by rank incivility that tears at our system of government and justice. We need to recover the ability to agree to disagree, to argue politely.”