The Dred Scott Decision Featuring Justice Neil M. Gorsuch
About this video
The video explains the 1857 Dred Scott case, in which a 7-2 Supreme Court ruled that African Americans could not be citizens, that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories, and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. Justice Neil Gorsuch argues the decision was judicial overreach: judges making new law instead of applying the law as written, which helped lead to the Civil War.
You'll be able to
- describe the facts and ruling of the Dred Scott case.
- explain why Justice Gorsuch calls Dred Scott judicial overreach.
- explain how the decision contributed to the Civil War.
Key words
- Due process
- Fair legal procedures the government must follow before taking away life, liberty or property.
- Judicial overreach
- When judges go beyond their role and make law instead of applying it.
- Missouri Compromise
- An earlier law balancing slave and free states, which Dred Scott declared unconstitutional.
- Majority opinion
- The official ruling of a court, written for the justices who agree.
Transcript
the national constitution center presents constitutional questions with supreme court justice neil gorsuch the dred scott case dredd and harriet scott were enslaved people whose owner had once taken them to live and work in territories where slavery was illegal later scott sued for his freedom arguing that any enslaved person taken to a free territory automatically became free and could not be re-enslaved in 1857 his case made it to the supreme court in a 7-2 decision authored by chief justice tawney the court concluded that african-americans whether free or enslaved couldn't be united states citizens and therefore they had no right to sue in federal court tani also wrote that african americans had no rights which the white man was bound to respect the decision also said that congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the territories that slaves were property and that slave owners could not be
deprived of their property without due process the decision declared that the missouri compromise passed decades earlier to balance the power between slave and non-slave states was unconstitutional instead of settling the issue of slavery the dred scott decision sped the nation's path to the civil war and now supreme court justice neil gorsuch tells us more about the dred scott case and judicial overreach for me dred scott is an example of what happens when the judiciary exceeds its intended scope and uses the constitution to write new law dred scott was a decision where the supreme court asserted that congress had no power to regulate slavery in the territories no provision of the constitution says anything of the kind that was law making by judges
that was usurping the power of congress by nine members of this court and it was done some say with a good intention some say the court wanted to avoid the civil war and thought that this was a way to compromise to avoid the civil war that did not work out and it was a dark stain on this court's history and tradition taking over the law making power from congress defying the constitution treating persons unequally and the result was contributing to a great civil war so to me dred scott is a cautionary tale in what happens when judges exceed their power and engage in law making rather than applying the law as written
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