Judge David Sentelle of the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals is hearing the case of reporters Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, who have refused to reveal confidential sources to prosecutors seeking to learn who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to reporters.

In the course of the case, Judge Sentelle raised a hypothetical question from the bench: “Does this privilege [to keep a source’s identity secret] also protect the proprietor of a Web log, the stereotypical ‘blogger’ sitting in his pajamas at his personal computer posting on the World Wide Web?”

Which inspired columnist Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle to defend the concept of writing in pajamas:

Well, ahem. I am not now in my pajamas, but I could be. So could Robert Novak, come to think of it. Pajamas do not inherently corrupt the quality of the information passing through the brain of the person wearing the pajamas.

“Of course,” Carroll went on to concede, if he’s ever hauled into court, in pajamas or otherwise, he has one-up on bloggers:

“My words are protected by the full faith and credit of the San Francisco Chronicle, which is, as you know, either a tool of big money interests or a blatantly liberal propaganda rag, depending on which letter writer you read.”

—S.L.