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Dred Scott and the Dangers of a Political Court
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2009
Summary
The Dred Scott decision of 1857 is widely (and correctly) regarded as the very worst in the long history of the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision held that no African American could ever be a U.S. citizen and declared that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional and void. The decision thus appeared to promise that slavery would be forever protected in the great American West. Prompting mass outrage, the decision was a crucial step on the road that led to the Civil War. Dred Scott and the Dangers of a Political Court traces the history of the case and tells the story of many of the key people involved, including Dred and Harriet Scott, President James Buchanan, Chief Justice Roger Taney, and Abraham Lincoln. The book also examines in some detail each of the nine separate Opinions written by the Court's Justices, connecting each with the respective Justices' past views on slavery and the law. That examination demonstrates that the majority Justices were willing to embrace virtually any flimsy legal argument they could find at hand in an effort to justify the pro-slavery result they had predetermined. Many modern commentators view the case chiefly in relation to Roe v Wade and related controversies in modern constitutional law: some conservative critics attempt to argue that Dred Scott exemplifies 'aspirationalism' or 'judicial activism' gone wrong; some liberal critics in turn try to argue that Dred Scott instead represents 'originalism' or 'strict constructionism' run amok. Here, Judge Ethan Greenberg demonstrates that none of these modern critiques has much merit. The Dred Scott case was not about constitutional methodology, but chiefly about slavery, and about how very far the Dred Scott Court was willing to go to protect the political interests of the slave-holding South. The decision was wrong because the Court subordinated law and intellectual honesty to politics. The case thus exemplifies the dangers of a political Court.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2009
ISBN-Print
978-0-7391-3758-1
ISBN-Online
978-0-7391-3760-4
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
329
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Table of Contents No access
Acknowledgments No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 8
Chapter 1. Preface—Dred Scott in a House Divided No access
Chapter 2. A Slave's Life No access
Chapter 3. False Promise of Freedom—Scott's State Court Trials No access
Chapter 4. "A Dark and Fell Spirit"—The Missouri Supreme Court Reverses No access
Chapter 5. New Trial and Defeat in St. Louis Federal Court No access
Chapter 6. At the Summit—Argument and Reargument Before the U.S. Supreme Court No access
Chapter 7. The President-Elect Secretly Intervenes No access
Chapter 8. "The South is Doomed"—Chief Justice Roger Taney No access
Chapter 9. Taney's Opinion of the Court: An Overview No access
Chapter 10. Can a Black Man be a True American?—Taney on Negro Citizenship No access
Chapter 11. "Upon These Considerations"—Taney Strikes Down the Missouri Compromise No access
Chapter 12. The Road Not Taken—Taney on Choice of Law and Res Judicata No access
Chapter 13. The Majority Concurs (After a Fashion) No access
Chapter 14. Two Ringing Dissents No access
Chapter 15. Reaction and the Way to Civil War No access
Chapter 16. The Use and Misuse of History No access
Chapter 17. The Aspirationalist Critique—"Indifference to Injustice" No access
Chapter 18. The Originalist Critique—"First Cousin" to Roe No access
Chapter 19. The Traditional "Judicial Restraint" Critique No access
Chapter 20. Dred Scott and the Dangers of a Political Court No access
