The Dred Scott Decision
Dred Scott v. Sanford, which Abraham Lincoln called "an astonisher in legal history"1 remains to this day the most famous of all American judicial decisions. It was a landmark in the history of judicial review because it was the Supreme Court's first invalidation of a major federal law. The decision, in fact, provided an early indication of the vast judicial power that could be generated if political issues were converted, by definition into constitutional questions. It could be maintained that Dred Scott v. Sanford was used to parlay into a larger issue [the Missouri Compromise] for political effect. I believe that this was definitely the case and judging by the evidence, will seek to show that Chief Justice Taney was the instrument for this political conveyance, and dissenting opinions were overlooked in favor of the political scheme at hand. Furthermore, the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford would have remained small but innocuous except for the political machinations of Taney and other prominent figures.Taney used the United States Constitution for the political benefit of the current party and ironically, to bring peace to the issue of slavery. Taney hoped the court's decision would settle once and for all the question of
2) Was Dred Scott a citizen of Missouri and thus capable of bringing a suit in a federal court? This explication can be seen as bizarre, to say the very least. Of course the framers of the Constitution had the existing western territory particularly in mind when they approved Article Four. It might also be said that they had existing states specifically in mind when they approved the interstate commerce clause, and they had no notion of encompassing railroad transportation across the continent, airplane flights, or radio transmission-all of which cross state lines. To say that future acquisitions of territory could not be regulated under the territory clause because the framers were thinking only of territory already acquired was absurd. Justice Curtis held that the Court majority, by sustaining the plea in abatement, had held that this was a case to which the judicial power of the United States did not extend. In his opinion, the Court had no power to consider any other jurisdictional question not raised by the plea in abatement. In examining the merits of the case after having denied federal jurisdiction, the Court had exceeded its authority. For the third time in two pages, Taney stated the question under consideration, returning to his original emphasis on national citizenship:
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 4832
Approximate Pages = 19 (250 words per page double spaced)
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