Supreme Court that have had a powerful impact on both the highest

court of the land and the history of the United States. The Dred

Scott decision can definitely be included in this category of

monumental cases that changed the course of American history.

Until this decision the Supreme Court had a flawless reputation.

Its prestige and credibility were beyond reproach. This high

regard for the Supreme Court made people on both sides of the

slavery issue turn to it in the hope that what could not be

resolved in the political world could be solved in the legal

world by the highest court of the land. But this was really

expecting too much of judicial power. The major error associated

with this case was the misguided belief that a flaming political

problem, slavery, could become manageable by calling it a legal

problem and handing it over to the courts to resolve.

In the Dred Scott case the decision was based on

"expediency not principle." The big problem was trying to use

judicial power to settle a major political problem. Although the

Dred Scott decision may have been the result of a trial , in

reality it was a case of the court battling with the complex

and brought into existenceby the Constitution of the United

represenatives. They are what we familiarly call the

state's rights are more important than federal rights or vice

brother, Sanford , who regarded Dred as his property. Sanford

was completely inflexible . It appeared as though nothing would

cases, but by the issue of slavery. People were not getting fair

The plea of abatement was denied because the judge claimed that

the territories without judicial restraint. These two things

in Illinois and Minnesota made him a free man. The Missouri

Constitution. Scott's claim that he had become a free man because

slavery, but was one of the most traumatic events in the history

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2217
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)