The Dred Scott decision, a landmark Supreme Court case in 1857, denied citizenship to enslaved people and declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. Dred Scott, an enslaved man, sued for his freedom based on his residence in free territories. The Court, under Chief Justice Roger Taney, ruled against Scott, asserting that people of African descent were not and could never be citizens of the United States, and thus had no standing to sue in federal court. Furthermore, the Court determined that Congress lacked the power to prohibit slavery in U.S. territories, effectively opening all territories to potential slavery expansion.
This ruling intensified sectional tensions and significantly contributed to the polarization of the nation leading up to the Civil War. It invalidated earlier attempts at compromise, such as the Missouri Compromise, and bolstered the Southern argument for the legality and expansion of slavery. The decision inflamed abolitionist sentiment in the North and further divided the Democratic Party, which was already fractured over the issue of slavery. It is considered one of the worst decisions in the Supreme Court’s history due to its pro-slavery stance and its role in accelerating the path to civil war.
