Dred Scott Decision

[dred]

noun

1. ScottScott, Dred2

Dred Scott decision

1. A controversial ruling made by the Supreme Court in 1857, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. Dred Scott, a slave, sought to be declared a free man on the basis that he had lived for a time in a “free” territory with his master. The Court decided that, under the Constitution, Scott was his master's property and was not a citizen of the United States. The Court also declared that the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited slavery in certain areas, unconstitutionally deprived people of property — their slaves. The Dred Scott decision was a serious blow to abolitionists (see abolitionism).

Example Sentences

But it’s worth noting that earlier court majorities held that Black Americans — “beings of an inferior order,” in the words of the notorious Dred Scott decision — could be denied citizenship, that racial segregation was constitutional and that compulsory sterilization based on eugenics was perfectly legal.

From Los Angeles Times

The court’s ruling has more in common with the Dred Scott decision than with the original meaning of the 14th Amendment, which enshrined the right to birthright citizenship partially as a rebuke to the imperious Supreme Court that decided that shameful case.

From Slate

We can only hope that one day they overrule the Dred Scott decision—a key part of which was just revived—for the second time.

From Slate

After the Dred Scott decision, when Lincoln was inaugurated, in his first inaugural, he said, “if the policy of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties, in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers.”

From Slate

In the infamous Dred Scott decision, Supreme Court Justice Taney, speaking for the majority, said that the Negro has no rights which the white man is bound to respect.

From Salon