Dred Scott v. Sandford Denies Black Americans Citizenship
Chief Justice Taney's ruling says enslaved and free Black people alike have no rights a court must respect
Quick facts
- Court
- U.S. Supreme Court
- Chief Justice
- Roger B. Taney
- Vote
- 7-2 against Scott
What happened
Dred Scott, an enslaved man who had lived with his owner in the free state of Illinois and the free Wisconsin Territory before returning to Missouri, sued for his freedom on the grounds that residence on free soil had made him free. The Supreme Court ruled against him 7-2. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney's majority opinion went further than the case required, holding that no Black person, free or enslaved, could ever be a citizen of the United States and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court at all. Taney also ruled that Congress had no power to ban slavery in the territories, which meant the Missouri Compromise had been unconstitutional even before Kansas-Nebraska repealed it, and that slaveholders could bring enslaved people into any territory without losing their property rights.
Why it matters
By declaring that Congress could never restrict slavery in the territories, the decision removed the compromise ground that Clay and Douglas had built their careers on and made a political settlement of the slavery question look impossible. It also handed the emerging Republican Party, whose entire platform was restricting slavery's expansion, a ruling that Lincoln and others said had to be overturned or defied.
How we know
The National Archives' milestone document page and the Gilder Lehrman Institute both host the text of Taney's majority opinion, which states directly that Black people were "not intended to be included" under the word "citizens" in the Constitution.
Sources
- National Archives. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) · Primary source (author-declared)archives.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Dred Scott v. Sandford Majority Opinion (1857) · Primary source (author-declared)gilderlehrman.org · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match).
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