Judge Says Stanford Professor Crossed the Line in Fighting Big Tobacco

A Florida judge has declared that Robert N. Proctor, a Stanford University professor of the history of science and prominent critic of the tobacco industry, engaged in “appalling” behavior in trying to get University of Florida faculty members to pressure graduate students there to stop working as paid researchers for an expert witness for tobacco companies. But Judge William A. Parsons, of the state circuit court for Volusia County, denied a request from tobacco-company lawyers to preclude Mr. Proctor from testifying in a health-damages lawsuit pending before him, saying that the students were not working for an expert witness in that particular case and it would be difficult to prove the companies’ charge that Mr. Proctor’s conduct amounted to illegal witness tampering or harassment. Mr. Proctor has described the allegations as part of a tobacco-industry effort to silence him.