When a specific holding of a case is suddenly anointed with the chrism of “principle,” it has a very real effect on the doctrine of stare decisis. There is always the danger that a commentator or a subsequent opinion writer, either in the same court or another, will elevate the decision’s naked holding to the dignity of a legal “principle,” and attribute to that single decision a precedential breadth never intended.

Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide …, loc. 136