March 1857

Chief Justice Roger Taney's opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford declared that Black people — free or enslaved — were not citizens under the Constitution and had 'no rights which the white man was bound to respect.' Taney ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, declaring Congress had no power to ban slavery from any territory, effectively making slavery legal everywhere in the United States. The decision invalidated all Northern personal liberty laws protecting free Black residents. Taney explicitly stated that the framers had intended Black people to be 'a subordinate and inferior class of beings.' The ruling was the most consequential judicial endorsement of white supremacy in American history.

Chief Justice Roger Taney's Supreme Court ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford on March 6, 1857, holds that Black people — free or enslaved — are not citizens, have "no rights which the white man was bound to respect," and that Congress cannot ban slavery from territories. The ruling invalidates the Missouri Compromise retroactively and legally cementes white supremacy into constitutional law.

Justices Benjamin Curtis and John McLean issued powerful dissents in Dred Scott v. Sandford. Curtis demonstrated that Black men had been voters and citizens in several states at the Constitution's founding, directly contradicting Taney's historical claims. Curtis's dissent was so damaging that Taney attempted to revise his own opinion after the fact. Curtis resigned from the Court in protest shortly after the decision.

The Supreme Court rules that Black people are not citizens and have "no rights which the white man was bound to respect."