Opinion: What Sarah Palin should have told Katie Couric

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Memo to all future vice presidential candidates:

OK, rest easy. There’s no need to have a precise case name embedded in your memory bank if and when you confront the now-infamous query that Katie Couric pitched Sarah Palin -- name a Supreme Court decision (other than, depending on your viewpoint, Roe vs. Wade) with which you disagree.

Even if you have a case citation at the ready, don’t use it, because almost always it’s best not to sound like a lawyer (even if you are one).

Now, if you happen to be a social conservative like Palin, court decisions banning school prayer and protecting the burning of the U.S. flag as an expression of free speech might merit mention.

But here’s an all-purpose answer for politicians of all stripes: the Dred Scott ruling.

True, it’s not exactly contemporary; the case of a slave (Scott) who pursued a legal avenue to gain his freedom was decided in early 1857. But still, you won’t go wrong decrying the majority opinion that declared that no black -- slave or free -- could be considered a U.S. citizen (and thus subject to its legal protections).

The decision was of no small consequence; most historians agree it helped hasten the Civil War.

-- Don Frederick

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