Jump to full article: FORCES, 2008-10-22
Author: John Dale Dunn MD JD
Intro: Federal Judge Gladys Kessler blatantly ignored the rules of toxicology and epidemiology published in the Federal Judicial Center's Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (2nd Edition) in her decision . . .
Judge Kessler is a graduate of Cornell, then Harvard, who went to work as a labor and public interest lawyer and legislative aid for Democrat politicians in Congress and the Senate. . . .
Judge Kessler's decision in the 6 year long Racketeering case brought by the Federal Department of Justice against the tobacco industry tobacco case is an example of the grand overreach and tyrannical approach that characterizes activist judges when they have an American industry in their gun sights and a quasi-religious grudge. . . .
Judge Kessler ignored the insightful opinion of Judge William Osteen in 1998 that nullified the EPA's research on second hand smoke as scientific misconduct. . . .
Judge Kessler in contravention of the Osteen opinion, ruled:
* The tobacco companies were guilty of racketeering under the criminal code for asserting that secondhand smoke and low tar and nicotine cigarettes have less toxic effects on human health. . . .
Judge Kessler refused to allow the defendant tobacco companies at trial to show the clear-cut evidence that secondhand smoke even in the worst of circumstances is the equivalent of one cigarette a day and that no research has ever shown a health effect from such a low exposure. Even worse, in making her sweeping decision, Judge Kessler has decided to criminalize research that she disagrees with and advocacy by or for people of whom she disapproves.
The Court received arguments and pleadings in the case filed by the United States that branded as a criminal conspiracy the writings of columnists, researchers, and scientists who disagreed with the claims of anti-smoking activists. Epidemiologists whose research was published in peer reviewed journals and who found results that conflicted with the EPA position were implicated as conspirators by the Kafkaesque opinion of Judge Kessler. . . .
One might ask if Judge Kessler includes Judge Osteen as complicit
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