John Thomas Davies II (born January 6, 1932) is a Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 DFL politician, a former legislator

Legislator

A legislator is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are usually politicians and are often elected by the people...

 and jurist

Jurist

A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...

, and a former President of the Minnesota Senate.

Davies served as a sports editor for KSTP-TV

KSTP-TV

KSTP-TV, channel 5, is the ABC affiliate for the Twin Cities. Its transmitter is located at the Shoreview Telefarm. It is the flagship station of Hubbard Broadcasting, which also owns several other broadcasting properties across the United States....

, and later earned a law degree from the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

, eventually working as a professor at William Mitchell College of Law

William Mitchell College of Law

William Mitchell College of Law, or WMCL, is a private, independent law school located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Accredited by the American Bar Association , it offers full and part-time legal education in pursuit of the Juris Doctor degree....

. I. Davies was first elected to the Minnesota Senate

Minnesota Senate

The Minnesota Senate is the upper house in the Minnesota Legislature. There are 67 members, half as many as are in the Minnesota House of Representatives. In terms of membership, it is the largest upper house of any state legislature. Each Senate district in the state includes an A and B House...

 in 1959, and served until 1983. While in office, he served as chair of the judiciary committee, and as President of the Senate during his last term. In 1990, Davies was appointed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals

Minnesota Court of Appeals

The Minnesota Court of Appeals is the intermediate appellate court for the state of Minnesota. It began operating on November 1, 1983. It is housed in the Minnesota Judicial Center in St...

 by Gov. Rudy Perpich

Rudy Perpich

Rudolph George "Rudy" Perpich, Sr. was an American politician and the longest-serving governor of Minnesota. A member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, he served as the 34th and 36th Governor of Minnesota from December 29, 1976 to January 4, 1979, and from January 3, 1983, to January 7, 1991...

, a position he held until he retired in 2000.