On NRO’s Corner, Ramesh Ponnuru relays Princeton professor Robert P. George’s interesting summary of remarks that Justice Scalia made last week, including:
In the evening’s most important comment, [Scalia] declared that though Supreme Court rulings should generally be obeyed, officials had no Constitutional obligation to treat as binding beyond the parties to a case rulings that lack a warrant in the text or original understanding of the Constitution. Without prompting from me, he cited Lincoln’s treatment of Dred Scott. As it happened, I had a copy of Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address with me (you never know when you’ll need it), so I read Lincoln’s words on the case to the audience.