What was the dred Scott decision.?

Answer 1

In a 7-2 ruling, the US Supreme Court held the following:

• African-Americans could never be citizens of the United States or the individual states.
• African-Americans were chattel (property) according to the Constitution, and their owners were protected from losing their property under the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause and Due Process Clause, which invalidated the "once free, always free" tradition.
• Because African-Americans were considered property, and were not legal citizens, they had no right to sue for their freedom.
• The Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because Congress had overstepped its authority in attempting to regulate states' rights.
• Citizens' groups were prohibited from establishing anti-slavery territories.

In the Dred Scott v. Sandford, (1857) case, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney held neither slaves nor those descended from slaves could be citizens of the United States and had no legal rights to sue. He supported his argument with a long and tortured analysis of the Founding Fathers' intentions in writing the Declaration of Independence and framing the Constitution, and concluded that African-Americans were deliberately excluded as citizens, and were, therefore, property.

Taney next expounded on the property rights of white citizens with regard to slaves, and determined it was illegal for a free state or territory to deprive a man of his property while in those states, while simultaneously acknowledging the slavery was a state's rights issue.

Taney next turned his attention to Congress and declared it did not have the right to prohibit slavery in territories held collectively by the states, or to force new states formed from federal territory to adhere to agreements such as the Missouri Compromise, which was designed to prevent slaveholding from expanding. This rendered the Missouri Compromise null and void.

The decision in Dred Scott was one of the primary catalysts to the start of the Civil War.

Case Citation:

Dred Scot v. Sanford, 60 US 393 (1857)

Answer 2

In a 7-2 ruling, the US Supreme Court held the following:

• African-Americans could never be citizens of the United States or the individual states.
• African-Americans were chattel (property) according to the Constitution, and their owners were protected from losing their property under the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause and Due Process Clause, which invalidated the "once free, always free" tradition.
• Because African-Americans were considered property, and were not legal citizens, they had no right to sue for their freedom.
• The Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because Congress had overstepped its authority in attempting to regulate states' rights.
• Citizens' groups were prohibited from establishing anti-slavery territories.

In the Dred Scott v. Sandford, (1857) case, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney held neither slaves nor those descended from slaves could be citizens of the United States and had no legal rights to sue. He supported his argument with a long and tortured analysis of the Founding Fathers' intentions in writing the Declaration of Independence and framing the Constitution, and concluded that African-Americans were deliberately excluded as citizens, and were, therefore, property.

Taney next expounded on the property rights of white citizens with regard to slaves, and determined it was illegal for a free state or territory to deprive a man of his property while in those states, while simultaneously acknowledging the slavery was a state's rights issue.

Taney next turned his attention to Congress and declared it did not have the right to prohibit slavery in territories held collectively by the states, or to force new states formed from federal territory to adhere to agreements such as the Missouri Compromise, which was designed to prevent slaveholding from expanding. This rendered the Missouri Compromise null and void.

The decision in Dred Scott was one of the primary catalysts to the start of the Civil War.

Case Citation:

Dred Scot v. Sanford, 60 US 393 (1857)

Answer 3

A supreme court ruling stating that blacks could not become citizens of the United States