Ford, along with Boston Police Commissioner Joseph Timilty, created a campaign with the Federal Narcotics Bureau to "nip the evil flower of marijuana in the bud.

"[3] This was primarily the result of an incident in South Boston during which teenagers fired at police while apparently under the influence of marijuana.

As United States Attorney, Ford successfully prosecuted two mail-robbers in U.S. v. Rettich which was upheld on appeal.

They were also indicted and found guilty for assaulting the truck driver with a dangerous weapon, thus "effecting a robbery of said registered mail."

The defendants' main argument was that the trial court erred in allowing certain evidence ($10,000 found buried in Rettich's yard) because it was obtained through illegal search and seizure.

The court wrote that "evidence secured even by an unlawful search and seizure by state officers, when not acting in behalf of the federal government, is admissible in a prosecution for a federal offense in the United States Courts, whether seized under an invalid search warrant or without any warrant at all."

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."

The Court held that Ford had committed prejudicial error by submitting the ten special questions to the jury.

Howard Zinn, in his book Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies of Law and Order wrote, "In sentencing Dr. Spock, William Coffin, Michael Ferber, and Mitchell Goodman to jail terms on July 10, 1968, Judge Francis Ford in Boston quoted Justice Fortas that 'Lawlessness cannot be tolerated,' and added his own words: 'Where law and order stops, obviously anarchy begins.