Scalia to Teach Class on Constitution Organized by Bachmann

At the invitation of Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will teach a class on the meaning of the Constitution to incoming members of Congress, Bachmann's office tells CBS News.

Though the details are still being worked out, Bachmann's office says the class will take place in late January. It will be the first in a series of weekly or biweekly classes planned by the conservative Minnesota representative. The courses will focus on the nation's founding documents.

"We're going to do what the NFL does and what the baseball teams do: we're going to practice every week, if you will, our craft, which is studying and learning the Declaration, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights," Bachmann told Lou Dobbs in a discussion of the plan last week. (Watch at left, courtesy of Right Wing Watch.)

"Justice Scalia has graciously agreed to kick off our class," she continued. "The hour before we cast our first vote in Congress, we'll meet in the Capitol, we'll have a class or a seminar on some segment of the Constitution, we'll have a speaker, we'll have questions and answers, we'll wrap our minds around this magnificent document. That'll set the tone for the week while we're in Washington."

Scalia is widely-seen as a so-called "strict constructionist" judge who favors a conservative, limited interpretation of the Constitution, though he has suggested the label does not apply to him.

Bachmann, who founded the House Tea Party caucus, said she hopes the classes will attract members from both sides of the aisle.

"I think it's great and I'm hoping all the members of Congress will partake. It's bipartisan," she told Dobbs.