The state's finances are such a mess that in late 2007 Governor Corzine proposed the political "Hail Mary" of mortgaging New Jersey's toll roads in return for a guaranteed revenue stream.
But late last month U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven overturned his most important conviction that of delivering cocaine and in so doing took a giant step in re-asserting one of the fundamental (but often under-recognized) principles assuring the liberty of Americans: the notion that the criminal justice system can punish us only if it can be proven that we knowingly and hence intentionally committed a crime.