Dred Scott V. Sandford Case Analysis

The Supreme Court is important in America because any case they decide to hear, might change laws. The Supreme Court’s job is to finalize court decisions and decide if they want to create a law for the whole country to follow. Whether the case was first heard in a State Court or Federal Court, it could make its way up to the Supreme Court to be heard and set a precedent in the future. A case that went to the Supreme Court is the Dred vs. Sanford. The case impacted America slowly after the case was over.
Dred Scott, an African American that lived in the free state of Illinois moved to the slave state of Missouri and became a slave. In the Dred Scott v. Sandford article, Dred Scott said that whether a free African person or a slave was able to

territories. The court believed what the slaveholders did was constitutional because slaves were known to be property. Slaveholders were protected by the 5th amendment (McBride). Slavery was acceptable in the south because there were no laws for slavery in the south. Chief Justice Roger Brook Taney believed that African Americans had “no rights which any white man was bound to respect” (Dred Scott v. Sandford Rules on Citizenship of African Americans). The Chief Justices that were on the case are Roger B. Taney, Samuel Nelson, John McLean and Robert Grier. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, a supporter of slavery said that African American people were not allowed to become citizens. Justice John McLean and Benjamin R. Curtis argued that Dred Scott should be freed under the Missouri Compromise (Dred Scott Case). The majority opinion of the case was 7 to 2. The Supreme Court ruled Dred as not being about to bring a suit in the federal Court. Many of the Justices had different opinions about the case whether they were pro slavery or not. The precedent that the Dred vs. Sanford case set for the country was that blacks were not citizens and had no right to sue. The Dred vs. Sanford case is a landmark case because of the fact that it showed how the government felt about the issue of slavery at the time. The government allowed the states to decide whether slavery was acceptable or not. After the case, there was a civil war between the north and south because of