The Dred Scott Decision

Improved Essays
DRED SCOTT V. SANFORD: THE ROLE OF THE SUPREME COURT IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS

Jay Barber 25938654
HIUS-221
November 16, 2017

As seminal decision rendered by the United States Supreme Court, Dred Scott v. Sanford brought the issues of racism and slavery to the forefront of American political culture during the nineteenth century. It has also been considered by legal and political scholars to be a “ghastly error”, the “product of an overly ideological and reactionary judge”, and a cause of the Civil War. Many abolitionists and Northerners declared the Supreme Court’s decision to be illegitimate while others demanded obedience to the Court’s decision and labeled disobedience as rebellion, treason, and unconstitutional.
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The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had stated that all areas west of Missouri and north of the 36/30 latitude line were free, yet this decision made the Compromise unconstitutional. As such, this landmark decision aggravated the sectional controversy that involved the country and marked a major step towards civil war. Constitutional scholars suggest that Dred Scot v. Sandford was the worst decision ever made by the Supreme Court. It continues to be cited as an example of the Supreme Court imposing a judicial solution to a national political issue. The Justices ignored precedents, distorted American history, and imposed a stringent instead of a loose construction of the United States Constitution. What this decision signified was that the views of Southern politicians triumphed, and the federal government retained a constitutional duty to defend slavery. It further shed light on how the political tendencies of the members of the Supreme Court influenced the decision made, despite ignoring protocol and

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