The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments tomorrow in the Zacarias Moussaoui case:

A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., will hear arguments Wednesday from prosecutors and Moussaoui's court-appointed lawyers over whether the government forfeited its right to seek the death penalty by refusing to produce certain al-Qaida witnesses for his defense.

The larger issue is simple: Does the Government's terror war outweigh a defendant's consitutional rights?

Taking a position that experts say is unprecedented, prosecutors warn that Brinkema's ruling endangers national security by crimping the fight against al Qaeda, allowing terrorism defendants to tie the criminal justice system in knots with similar requests for access to detainees.

....Defense lawyers are sounding a different alarm. They say that by refusing to turn over the witnesses, the government is seeking to turn the Constitution on its head, arguing that the 6th Amendment guarantees defendants the right to interview witnesses on their behalf.

"If a court were to say there is a national security exception to the right to confront witnesses, even when you are subject to the death penalty, that would be staggering," said Stephen Saltzburg, a law professor at George Washington University who has closely followed the Moussaoui case. "There would basically be no limits to what the government could do."

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is viewed as one of the most conservative and pro-Government appeals courts in the country. The three judges who will hear the case are Chief Judge William W. Wilkins Jr. and judges Roger Gregory and Karen Williams. Experts predict the ruling could go either way.