Scott v. Sanford

Dred Scott v. Sandford
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 11–14, 1856 Reargued December 15–18, 1856 Decided March 6, 1857
Full case name	Dred Scott v. John F. A. Sandford
Citations	60 U.S. 393 (more) 19 Howard 393; 15 L. Ed. 691; 1856 WL 8721; 1857 U.S. LEXIS 472
Prior history	Judgment for defendant, C.C.D. Mo.
Holding
Judgment reversed and suit dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Persons of African descent cannot be, nor were ever intended to be, citizens under the U.S. Const. Plaintiff is without standing to file a suit. The Property Clause is only applicable to lands possessed at the time of ratification (1787). As such, Congress cannot ban slavery in the territories. Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional. Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibits the federal government from freeing slaves brought into federal territories.
Court membership
Chief Justice Roger B. Taney Associate Justices John McLean · James M. Wayne John Catron · Peter V. Daniel Samuel Nelson · Robert C. Grier Benjamin R. Curtis · John A. Campbell
Case opinions
Majority	Taney, joined by Wayne, Catron, Daniel, Nelson, Grier, Campbell
Concurrence	Wayne
Concurrence	Catron
Concurrence	Daniel
Concurrence	Nelson, joined by Grier
Concurrence	Grier
Concurrence	Campbell
Dissent	McLean
Dissent	Curtis
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. V; Missouri Compromise
Superseded by
U.S. Const. amends. XIII, XIV

Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857), also known simply as the Dred Scott case, was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on US labor law and constitutional law. It held that "a negro, whose ancestors were imported into [the U.S.], and sold as slaves", whether enslaved or free, could not be an American citizen and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court, and that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States. Dred Scott, an enslaved man of "the negro African race" who had been taken by his owners to free states and territories, attempted to sue for his freedom. In a 7–2 decision written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the court denied Scott's request. The decision was, at the time, only the second time that the Supreme Court had ruled an Act of Congress to be unconstitutional.

Although Taney hoped that his ruling would finally settle the slavery question, the decision immediately spurred vehement dissent from anti-slavery elements in the North. Many contemporary lawyers, and most modern legal scholars, consider the ruling regarding slavery in the territories to be dictum, not binding precedent. The decision proved to be an indirect catalyst for the American Civil War. It was functionally superseded by the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1868, which gave African Americans full citizenship.