USA 250th: Worst U.S. Supreme Court decision: 1857 Dred Scott - Nationalizing Slavery.

The U.S. Supreme Court made  its worst decision ever - the 1857 Dred Scott decision. 

We walk through how Dred Scott was taken from slavery into Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, built a family, and then tried to claim freedom through the idea of “once free, always free” only to be blocked at every turn until the case reached SCOTUS.

We break down Chief Justice Roger B. Taney’s ruling and why it still shocks readers today: the Court said Scott was not a citizen and claimed Black Americans had no civil rights the Court was bound to respect, reducing human beings to “property” under constitutional logic. We also explain the wider blast radius, including how the Court struck at the Missouri Compromise and declared Congress could not restrict slavery in the territories, effectively empowering slavery’s expansion.

From there, we connect the legal decision to the political earthquake that followed. You’ll hear why Abraham Lincoln argued the ruling was designed to nationalize slavery, how the young Republican Party surged, and how the country ultimately had to correct the Court through federal action and constitutional change, including the 13th Amendment and the 14th Amendment’s guarantees of citizenship and due process.

If you care about American history, constitutional law, civil rights, or how courts shape the nation’s moral direction, this is a must listen. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review telling us which Supreme Court decision you think has had the biggest impact and why.

• Dred Scott’s life under slavery and his time in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory
• The “once free, always free” argument and the Missouri court fight beginning in 1846
• Christian abolitionist support and the wider anti slavery movement
• The Supreme Court’s 7–2 decision and Taney’s claim that Black Americans had no civil rights
• The Court’s ruling against the Missouri Compromise and limits on Congress in the territories
• Lincoln’s warning about nationalizing slavery and the growth of the early Republican Party
• How Congress and the Constitution later overturn Dred Scott through the 13th and 14th Amendments

Transcript

Why Dred Scott Still Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:00

His name is Dred Scott, and his court case went all the way to the SCOTIS, the Supreme Court of the United States of America. The Dred Scott decision of 1857, I consider to be the worst, the worst Supreme Court decision ever. I know you enjoy today's program. Welcome to Mercer Moments in American history. Today is the 1857 Dred Scott decision. The worst SCOTUS decision in history. SCOTUS being SCOTUS, that means the Supreme Court of the United States. Now,

From Enslavement To Free Territory

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Dred Scott was born a slave in Virginia in 1795. He was eventually sold to a Dr. John Emerson, a U.S. Army surgeon. Emerson took Scott and his family to Illinois, which was a free state, and then later moved to Wisconsin, which was a free territory before Wisconsin became a state. If you're watching, I'm where in Wisconsin today, and always give a shout out to the students, the high school and post-secondary students, those who love God in our country, they need our encouragement, they need our prayers. Next time it could be your state. Emerson took Dred Scott and his family to Wisconsin, a free territory, and then later Emerson moved to Missouri, which was a slave state. In the Wisconsin free territory, Dred Scott met his wife and they had two daughters. Now what happened? Dr. Emerson died. Now Dred Scott, using the understood doctrine of once free, always free, wanted to try to the money he had earned in the free state of Illinois, in the free state of Wisconsin, to be able to buy the freedom of his wife and daughters. But the widow of Emerson refused. And that's when it all happened. In 1846,

The Lawsuit And Abolitionist Support

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Dred Scott filed suit in Missouri State Courts. He was blessed. He had men and women of faith, of what I call men and women of, if you heard my program before, of the Great Awakening, who were told, hey, the whole world's doing slavery, it's 8,000 years old. And the men and women, these true Christians of the Great Awakening, said, no, we don't care the whole world's doing slavery. We don't care that it's 8,000 years old. God told us that human slavery is a sin, and we must confront that sin. Of course, the biggest opposition were some of the churches of the solid Democrat South who said, Well, slavery is part of God's plan. They didn't support Dred Scott. But thank God he had the support of Christian abolitionists. I know the college universities never used the word Christian. That's who they were. They were men and women of faith, and they were not like a bunch of zombies to see on TV to walk around singing all these hymns. They were men and women who created the Underground Railroad, who supported people and financed people like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman. These are great men and women of faith, white people who came forth with other black Christians and supported Dred Scott as he went through the court process and eventually went all the way to the SCOTUS, the Supreme Court of the United States.

The 7–2 Ruling And Its Logic

SPEAKER_00 3:26

I used to know the Supreme Court was at that time, was it nine members, seven Democrats, two Republicans? I know my opposition, oh Mr. Mercer, the Supreme Court is not partisan. Well, let me just say the Democrats, three of them were appointed by Andrew Jackson, who was president for eight years, who owned at least 200 slaves every year that he was president. And he appointed pro-slavery judges, some of them were actually slave owners. And the seven to two to court decision were seven Democrats or appointed by Democrats who were pro-slavery, and two Republicans who were once called the Whig Party, but this new party came about called Republicans, which had a two-party platform. One, to stop the expansion of slavery, and two to eventually abolish slavery. Dred Scott lost the Supreme Court. And you want to guess what the number was? Seven to two. The most famous court case landmark in history, the worst case in Supreme Court history, Dred Scott lost seven to two, seven Democrat appointed judges to two Republican judges, but that isn't where it ended. Are you ready for this? Roger B. Tanney, he declared that Dred Scott was not a citizen and thus had no right to sue. In fact, the reason this case is so famous, he said, if you're a black man, it doesn't matter if you were born a slave and won your freedom, even if you were born free. Because you're African American, you had no civil rights and no right to sue because you were only property. Again, African Americans, according to that Supreme Court 7-2, led by Chief Justice Tanney, said, Because you're African American, you have no rights. The Supreme Court did a stretch. They also went and said the Missouri Compromise, passed by our Congress, which is a compromise, if you bring in one slave state, you gotta bring in one free state, right? That was set up that way to keep the balance of power. If you had a free state, you had to have a slave state coming together. I call it a coupling of power. The Supreme Court ruled that was unconstitutional. Because of the rights of property, Congress had no right, no right to in any way regulate slavery. No rights to ban slavery in any territory. This court case actually legitimized slavery in 1857. And then this new Republican Party, which is only three years old, it began in 1854, exploded in growth. And by 1860, this new guy came called Abraham Lincoln. You've heard of him? He was nominated as Republican candidate for president, and he declared that the Dred Scott decision was a conspiracy by the Democrat Party to nationalize slavery. You haven't heard that before, have you? That's why I do my programs. Abraham Lincoln declared that the Dred Scott decision was a conspiracy by the Democrat Party, the pro-slavery party, to nationalize slavery in our United States. And there was a huge burst of growth for the Republican Party, whose platform included two major planks, one to stop the expansion of slavery, and second, to eventually abolish all human slavery. Again, it was a 7-2 decision by the seven Democrat-appointed judges versus the two Whig or Republican appointed judges. Dred Scott lost. And again, the decision said it didn't matter if you were born free or if you were a slave and won your freedom. Because you were African-American, you had no civil rights and no right to even appear before any court. Wow. That's why I call it a landmark decision and the worst decision ever in the history of our United States. Now

Overturning Dred Scott With Amendments

SPEAKER_00 7:43

let me conclude the Dred Scott decision was actually overturned by Congress. They passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1860s and later on passed the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. They passed the 13th to abolish slavery, but many of the solid Democrat states still would not allow African American families the basic rights, basic civil rights and freedoms like due process. So Republicans had a majority, and by two-thirds vote, they passed a constitutional amendment, the 14th Amendment, which gave you basic civil rights, gave you due process to African-American families. I will have another program in the future about the 14th Amendment, how that vote happened. But you should know the worst decision ever was again to the point where Abraham Lincoln said that the Dred Scott decision was a conspiracy by the Democrat court, conspiracy by the Democrat Party, the pro-slavery party, to eventually nationalize slavery. I hope you enjoyed today's program about the Dred Scott decision. What was the worst Supreme Court decision in history? The landmark Dred Scott decision.

Lincoln Taney And A Dark Irony

SPEAKER_00 8:54

And my friends, let me add one more page in history. It's been mysteriously erased and deleted. Remember Roger B. Tanney, he was the Chief Justice of the 7-2 Dred Scott decision. He wrote the opinion against Dred Scott. Well, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president, and he had to be sworn in in the spring of 61. Abraham Lincoln was this brand new political party that many Christian people, abolitionists, worked together to form. The Republican Party, and the Christians made sure there were two planks put in there, important planks, one to stop the expansion of slavery, and a second to eventually abolish all human slavery. But guess who was the Chief Justice who had to swear in new President Abraham Lincoln? This is why I say that I think God has a sense of humor. It was Roger B. Tanney who had to swear in President Abraham Lincoln.

Closing Message On Faith And History

SPEAKER_00 9:57

This is Ken Mercer, Mercer Moments in American history. Please never forget the strength of America is that in God we still trust, right here in a place called the United States of America, through all the good times and bad times, in times when we went down the wrong path, like the Dred Scott decision, and we had to write that path, like the 13th, 14th, and the 15th Amendment, it was led by men and women of faith who said, human slaver's a sin, and we must confront that sin. That's why we say in a place called the United States of America. In God. In God we still trust. In God, we still trust. Thank you, my friends. May God bless you.