Oral arguments took place today in the NSA case in *cough* in San Francisco in front of the - you guessed it - Ninth Circuit.

“Spectators lined up outside the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco starting at noon to guarantee a seat at a much-anticipated legal showdown over the government’s secret wiretapping program.

The hearing involves two cases: one aimed at AT&T for allegedly helping the government with a widespread datamining program allegedly involving domestic and international phone calls and internet use; the other a direct challenge to the government’s admitted warrantless wiretapping of overseas phone calls.

Jon Eisenberg, (right) an Oakland-based attorney, is arguing on behalf of a now-defunct Islamic charity Al-Haramain and its lawyers, who claim to have been accidentally given a Top Secret log of their own phone conversations, which they say proves the government illegally eavesdropped on them without warrants.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Bondy will argue for the government in the Al-Haramain challenge, while Deputy Solicitor General Gregory Garre will handle the government’s side in the AT&T case.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the challenge to AT&T, is being represented by Robert Fram, a San Francisco-based attorney.”

Read the rest of the live blogging from the courthouse.

(Morning update): The Washington Post covers the events yesterday citing the fact the liberal activist judges were not believing the Government’s case. We are SOOOO surprised. We’ll have to wait and see but right now it appears they’ll rule like they always have.