Paul Jones ( judge ) Paul Jones ( November 4 , 1880 – August 4 , 1965 ) was an American football player and coach and United States federal judge . He played fullback for the University of Michigan ' s national championship football team in 1902 and became the football coach at Western Reserve University after graduating from Michigan . He practiced law from 1905 to 1920 and served as an Ohio state court judge from 1920 to 1923 . In 1923 , he was appointed as a United States district court judge in Cleveland , a position he held until his death in 1965 . Early years and football career . Jones was born in Youngstown , Ohio . He attended the University of Michigan where he studied law and also played football . Jones worked in a Youngstown boiler shop for five cents an hour during his summer vacations . He was the starting fullback on Fielding H . Yost ' s 1902 " Point - a - Minute " football team that finished the season 11 – 0 and outscored opponents 644 to 12 . Jones was a popular player , and in October 1902 newspaper accounts reported that he led the students in singing the " varsity yell " at a " singing bee " preceding the football game against Wisconsin . Jones was six - feet tall and weighed 170 pounds as Michigan ' s fullback in 1902 . After being a starter on the 1902 Michigan Wolverines football team , Jones contracted typhoid fever and was unable to play in 1903 . In March 1903 , Jones left the university for a year to recuperate from the effects of typhoid fever . Jones received an LL . B . from the University of Michigan Law School in 1904 . Jones was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1904 , but after graduating from Michigan , he was hired as the head football coach at Western Reserve University in Cleveland . Legal career . Jones entered the private practice of law in Youngstown , Ohio in 1905 . He was a Referee in Bankruptcy of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio from 1912 to 1916 . Jones was appointed Youngstown city attorney , a position he held from 1916 to 1920 . He also ran for mayor of Youngstown , an election he lost by 400 votes . In 1920 , he was elected as a Court of Common Pleas judge for Mahoning County , serving in that role from 1920 to 1923 . United States District Court Judge . Jones was nominated by President Warren G . Harding to the U . S . District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on February 28 , 1923 , to a new seat created by . Confirmed by the Senate on March 2 , 1923 , he received his commission the same day . Jones developed a reputation for his outspoken comments from the bench . In 1932 , as Prohibition was being widely blamed with causing the spread of racketeering and organized crime , Judge Jones asserted that the influence of Prohibition on crime was exaggerated . In 1933 , Judge Jones gained attention when he sentenced a 46 - year - old pregnant mother of ten to 15 days in jail for selling a quart of liquor to federal agents for 50 cents . He refused the woman ' s plea for leniency , saying : " It is an outrage for this woman to be bringing children into the world when she and her husband cannot support those they already have without breaking the law . " As he sentenced her , Judge Jones lectured her on the advantages of birth control , closing his comments by asking , " Doesn ' t this woman know how to stop it ? " In 1934 , he criticized " windy lawyers " for their " briefs of Voltairian proportions " which " unduly burden the court and tire it out . " Jones gained national attention in 1946 when he ruled that rent control laws were unconstitutional . He held that , while rent control may have been permissible during the wartime emergency , Congress lacked the power to continue the restrictions " when peace has returned in fact . " In 1947 , the NEA wire service ran a feature article about Judge Jones and his rent control decision in which it observed : " If you either own or rent an apartment , you either love or hate Federal Judge Paul Jones . Judge Jones , of the Northern Ohio District Court , handed down the ruling that the rent law is unconstitutional . If sustained by higher courts , his decision means , simply , that all rent controls are over and done for , that landlords can charge all the traffic will bear and that tenants can pay or get out . " Jones ' ruling was later reversed by the U . S . Supreme Court . Jones continued to contend that his ruling had been correct . He served as chief judge from 1948 to 1959 and remained on the court until his death on August 4 , 1965 . At the time of his death at age 84 , Jones was the oldest active district court judge in the United States . He had announced plans to retire on in November 1965 on his 85th birthday due to illness . He died at his home in Shaker Heights , Ohio . Judge Paul Jones was married to Caroline Bonnell , a survivor of the sinking of the " Titanic " , in 1924 . They had a son , Paul Jones , Jr . , and a daughter , Mrs . Mary Chilcote .