LAD #14: Dred Scott Decision

On the case of Dred Scott which came about on the 14ths of February in 1857, the case favored a moderate decision ruling in favor of Sanford. It did not however consider the huge ussues of Black citizenship and the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise brought about only a few years earlier. To work on the decision, Nelson was elected and the court elected to throw out his decision and decided instead to use Chief Justice Roger B. By his inauguration day in 1857, a man named Buchanana knew that the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision, and took his opportunity to give his support to the Supreme Court in his inaugural address. On Just March 6th of the same year, the first question Taney was asked, was his opinion on the Negroes, and free Negroes on whether or not they were or should be citizens of the United States and therefor asking if Scott as a Negro himself had the priviledge of being able to sue a southern state in a federal court. Congress likewise could not deprive citizenship in their territories of “life, liberty, or property” if they did not have due process of law or it would go against everything they stood for. According however to the Fifth ammendment was the Negro citizenship, that stated not only did slaves have this but also free blacks. A problem with the constitution however was that it made no distint difference between what property was and the difference between that of slavery. Taney reasoned that the Missouri Compromise deprived these slaveholding citizens who lived in the south and needed them to work on their plantations and farms, depriving them of their property that was slaves. Therefor the Missouri Compromise was unconstituional, and Taney ruled that the case should be dismissed due to its lack of jurisdiction. The case was sent back to the lower court with instructions for that court to dismiss the case for this very same reason, that it was unconstitional and could not be dealt with by the supreme court. This decision uphold and withstood the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision which stood in the favor of Sanford over Dred Scott. He was still property to a southern slaveholder, and this could not be changed.