nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 9, 1938, to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, to a new seat created by 52 Stat. 584. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 15, 1938, and received his commission on June 24, 1938. He served as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1961 to 1967. He assumed senior status on July 1, 1972. His service was terminated on May 26, 1975, due to his death in Boston. The Dr. Spock Trial Ford presided over the 1968 trial of childcare specialist and anti-Vietnam War activist Benjamin Spock ("Dr. Spock"), William Sloane Coffin (the chaplain of Yale University) Michael Ferber, Mitchell Goodman, and Marcus Raskin. In this case the defendants were indicted with conspiring to "counsel, aid and abet diverse Selective Service registrants to neglect, fail, refuse and evade service in the armed forces of the United States and all other duties required of registrants under the Universal Military Training and Service Act, to fail and refuse to have in their personal possession at all times their registration certificates (and) valid notices of classification (and conspired to) unlawfully, willfully and knowingly hinder and interfere, by any means, with the administration of the Universal Military Training and Service Action." Essentially, they were charged with conspiring to aid and abet draft dodgers. The jury found the defendants guilty of violating the Selective Service Act of 1948. The jury found the defendants guilty of conspiracy in large part due to special questions submitted by Ford to the jury. He also informed the jury that the legality of the Vietnam War was not a relevant issue. Following the trial, Dr. Spock stated that "Ford was not going to listen to any arguments that the government was wrong about the war." Spock also later stated that a friend of his, when leaving the courtroom, overheard Ford say, "They brought a bunch of slick New York lawyers to try to interfere with justice here, but they're not going to do it." Among the questions Ford submitted was the following: Does the Jury find beyond a reasonable doubt that defendants unlawfully, knowingly and willfully conspired to counsel Selective Service registrants to knowingly and willfully refuse and evade service in the armed forces of the United States in violation of Section 12 of the Military Selective Service Act