McKay and Nevin will be working with Navy Reserve Capt. Prescott Prince, the lead defense lawyer in the 9/11 case. Prince and Nevin share a similar temperament: They’re both soft-spoken with a record of representing unpopular defendants.

Nevin, 58, graduated from the University of Idaho Law School in 1978. His career is marked by a string of celebrated defenses, from neo-Nazis to Idaho’s worst environmental criminal, from business titans to a mother who helped her 14-year-old buy a pistol he used to kill a policeman.

A 2004 terrorism trial prepared Nevin and McKay for the new case. They represented Sami al-Hussayen, a University of Idaho graduate student and Saudi national charged with three terrorism-related offenses. Despite a rush to judgment by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and University President Bob Hoover — who called a press conference to say he felt betrayed — a Boise jury acquitted al-Hussayen.

But the case that first made Nevin famous was Ruby Ridge, when his client, Kevin Harris, was accused of murdering a deputy U.S. marshal at the end of a North Idaho standoff. Harris was cleared of all charges by a federal jury in Boise after a 60-day trial. Randy Weaver, represented by Spence, was acquitted of murder and conspiracy but convicted of lesser charges.

“I like to remind people that Gerry Spence’s client went back to jail,” said Tom McCabe, a Boise lawyer who has worked with Nevin. “Kevin Harris walked out the front door of the courthouse with David.”

Nevin is a work horse, not a show horse. “The reason I liked working with David was (that) whenever I was working, I knew he was working as hard as I was,” McCabe said. “If there’s something crawling under a rock that needs to have light shed on it, David’s going to find the rock, he’s going to lift it up, and everybody’s going to see what’s under it.” ‘Making sure the government plays by the rules’

Jack Weaver of Boise was the foreman of the Ruby Ridge jury. He wryly noted that Nevin attracts unpopular clients and attributed that to an “altruistic streak” that holds that even the most unsympathetic defendant deserves a rigorous defense.

“I think he has a little bit of an anti-government vein running through his body — just making sure the government plays by the rules,” said Weaver.

Weaver complimented Nevin’s understated style. In his closing argument in the Ruby Ridge case, Nevin spoke in a near-whisper and quoted George Washington: “Government is not reason, it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

Said Jack Weaver: “I honestly felt that David Nevin was Gerry Spence’s equal in legal ability, but maybe not in showmanship.”

Mike Johnson, U.S. marshal for Idaho during the Ruby Ridge shootings and the trial, respects Nevin for his commitment to the Constitution. He also can’t think of a better lawyer. “If you were in big trouble, I think that’s who you’d want to look at.”

Johnson said Nevin has a knack for synthesizing complex material and making it understandable. “He’s just down-to-earth, and he has a way of keeping it simple.”

But make no mistake: Nevin’s easy manner disguises a burning desire to win. Working together in their younger days, McCabe said he and Nevin would drive to the courthouse listening to motivational tapes by Tony Serra, a wild-haired California lawyer who defended the Black Panthers, Hell’s Angels and Earth First.

“It would get us fired up,” remembered McCabe. “His whole thing is the criminal defense attorney is a warrior — not a fence-mender, not a pacifier, not a negotiator. He’s a warrior!”