Apart from the question of whether President Obama deserves the Nobel Prize — a matter that we’ve suggested is the purview of the Norwegians — the newspapers are starting to crackle with the question of whether the Constitution permits Mr. Obama to accept it. The Nobel, after all, is worth more than $1 million, and Article I, Second 9 of the United States Constitution states in plain language that “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States” and that “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign state.”

Josh Gerstein, formerly national correspondent of the Sun, reports on Politico that the White House is rejecting as “flat out wrong” the notion that the Nobel Prize would be covered by the proscriptions in the Constitution. “The Constitution talks about kings and princes and foreign states,” Mr. Gerstein quotes a White House aide as asserting. “Here, Alfred Nobel, a private citizen, set up a private foundation — the Nobel Foundation — that awards the money.” The aide wouldn’t be named, Mr. Gerstein said, quoting him as also pointing out that Mr. Obama “has already indicated that he does not intend to keep the money.”