All of the judges were pretty snarky, but Pregerson was a thing of wry beauty. Dahlia has it exactly right (as usual): the state secret defense as deployed in this case is hilariously circular. Two questions, though: what next (in this case and the parallel NSA cases running around less friendly circuits)? The 9th seems poised to force the issue and put a stop (of sorts) to this nonsense, but we all know what that means. And what effect will the recent Congressional stamp of approval on the NSA program have? It came up a few times yesterday, and--while I can't see that it is all that legally significant to the AT&T case--it does seem to take some of the wind out of plaintiffs' sails...or at least some of the bite out of the judges' righteous indignation.