Falsely accused of being a terrorist, the Oregon lawyer wanted something more from the government than a cash settlement. He's fighting the Patriot Act -- and so far, he's winning.

Oct. 3, 2007 | PORTLAND, Ore. -- "Someone must have slandered Joseph K," begins Franz Kafka's classic novel "The Trial," "for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested."

These days, Mayfield lives much as he has for the past decade or so, practicing family law from a small solo office next to a strip mall on the southern edge of Portland. He is a slight man, 41 years old, who likes to take his lunch at a nearby Middle Eastern restaurant. In many ways, what's most interesting about Mayfield is how utterly unexceptional he is. He was born in Kansas and got his law degree from Washburn University in Topeka. An Army veteran, he is married, with three children, and lives with his family in a nearby suburb with the homey name of Aloha.