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USSC - Dred Scott v. Sandford (ebook)

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Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court that ruled that people of African descent imported into the United States and held as slaves, or their descendants—whether or not they were slaves—were not legal persons and could never be citizens of the United States, and that the United States Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories. The Court also ruled that slaves could not sue in court, and that slaves—as chattel or private property—could not be taken away from their owners without due process. The Court in the Dred Scott decision sided with border ruffians in the Bleeding Kansas dispute who were afraid a free Kansas would be a haven for runaway slaves from Missouri. The Supreme Court's decision was written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.

Dred Scott was indirectly overruled in the Slaughter-House Cases, which noted that Dred Scott's holding was superseded by the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865, which abolished slavery, and the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which guaranteed full rights and citizenship regardless of race. Though it is sometimes said that Dred Scott was never officially overruled, the Slaughter-House Cases did note that the post-Civil War Fourteenth Amendment (and thus enacted after the Dred Scott case) had overruled it, although the Court was merely noting the fact that Dred Scott had already been overruled by the amendment; it was not the Court that overruled Dred Scott, but Congress and the states:

The first observation we have to make on this clause is, that it puts at rest both the questions which we stated to have been the subject of differences of opinion. It declares that persons may be citizens of the United States without regard to their citizenship of a particular State, and it overturns the Dred Scott decision by making all persons born within the United States and subject to its jurisdiction citizens of the United States.

This decision is very readable by everyone and great for anyone interested in learning more about the supreme court, history, or the subject of the case.

LANDMARK DECISION:
A landmark decision is the outcome of a legal case (often thus referred to as a landmark case) that establishes a precedent that either substantially changes the interpretation of the law or that simply establishes new case law on a particular issue. Certain cases within this category are widely known in legal studies and may be reviewed by law students even if they have been overturned by later decisions.

The term "landmark decision" is not a formal legal term but a colloquialism, however it is in widespread use amongst legal professionals — over 5,000 published opinions of lower courts can be found identifying some precedent as a landmark decision in the field of law being addressed.

FEATURES:
• This eBook has internal links, in both directions, between footnotes and citations within the rulings themselves.
• It remembers where you last were reading
• Very fast to open and display.
• Self contained and therefore does not require internet.
• Excellent reference material for lawyers, teachers and students.
• Has ability to tele-read at a settable pace so as to avoid use of screen gestures.
• This is a reference work eBook eReader.