Wired‘s invaluable Threat Level blog has a detailed account of hearings earlier this week to determine whether a pair of lawsuits challenging alleged government wiretapping can continue. Slate‘s Dahlia Lithwick has a good short summary of the tortuous logic that prompted one judge to announce he felt like a character in Alice in Wonderland. The very, very short version: The government promises they aren’t doing anything illegal. The court will have to take their word for it, though, since what they are doing is so very Double-Secret that even discussing it in closed chambers, in any way, would constitute a dire threat to national security. The court will have to take their word for it on that as well. So, in effect, the legality of government spying may not be challenged unless the executive branch deigns to permit it.