What is the dred Scott decison?

Answer 1

Despite the conclusion that the Court lacked jurisdiction, however, the case of Dred Scott went on to hold (in what Republicans would label its "obiter dictum") which the decison ruled that Scott was not a free man, even though he had resided for a time in Minnesota. The Court held that the provisions of the Missouri Compromise declaring it to be free territory were beyond Congress's power to enact. The Court rested its decision on the grounds that Congress's power to acquire territories and create governments within those territories was limited. They held that the Fifth Amendment barred any law that would deprive a slaveholder of his property, such as his slaves, because he had brought them into a free territory.