John Adams sought a standard for the emerging country's legal system when he represented a British soldier no other lawyer would defend. Adams argued that unless the enemy soldier was subject to a fair trial under the law, there was no sense standing up to the British crown.

"When Adams looked back on his career late in life, he said it was the most honorable thing he had ever done," Justin Loughrey, president of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey (ACDL-NJ).

Loughrey and others in the New Jersey legal community are invoking the second president of the United States and rising to defend due process against what they see as an attack in the district 8 legislative contest.

Republicans have issued campaign mailers that call into question Democrat Tracy Riley's husband's representation of a man charged in a terror conspiracy plot.

The Courier-Post endorsed one Assembly candidate -- Republican Jonathan Mangel -- in the heavily Democratic 5th district, and pointedly refused to endorse Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, State Senate candidate Dana Redd, and Assemblywoman Nilsa Cruz-Perez.  They said the other GOP and independent candidates were not worthy of endorsement.  READ