"The law... will not bend to the uncertain wishes, imaginations and wanton tempers of men... On the one hand it is inexorable to the cries and lamentations of the prisoners; on the other it is deaf, deaf as an adder, to the clamors of the populace." - John Adams in Defense of the British Soldiers in the Boston Massacre Trials, December 4, 1770
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." - John Adams in Defense of the British Soldiers on trial for the Boston Massacre, December 4, 1770
"This year's Law Day theme, The Legacy of John Adams: From Boston to Guantanamo, fosters understanding of the historical and contemporary role of lawyers in defending the principle of due process and the rights of the accused." - Stephen N. Zack, President, American Bar Association
"Our 2011 Law Day theme, The Legacy of John Adams: From Boston to Guantanamo, highlights America's first lawyer-president and asks us to promote public understanding of the rule of law." - Kim J. Askew, National Law Day Chair, American Bar Association
"Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom." - John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, 1787
"Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope." - Robert Kennedy
John Adams
Resistance leader and patriot, advocate and diplomat, constitutional theorist and political activist, John Adams became our nation's first lawyer-president in 1797. Just five years before the American Revolutionary War began, he represented the British officer and soldiers charged with firing into a crowd of protestors and killing five civilians in the "Boston Massacre."
Already a prominent leader in the American colonial resistance to British parliamentary authority, Adams agreed to take on the cases and ably defended the accused at trial. His role in the 1770 Boston Massacre trials has come to be seen as a lawyerly exemplar of adherence to the rule of law and defense of the rights of the accused, even in cases when advocates may represent unpopular clients and become involved in matters that generate public controversy.
The Supreme Court of Nevada, the State Bar of Nevada, the Nevada Department of Education and school districts across the state will honor the legacy of John Adams during Law Day Live on May 5. This interactive, statewide forum will link students across Nevada to discuss the importance of access to justice and protecting the rights of the accused.
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