General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Dred Scott Court has been resurrected
what was the Dred Scott Court
The Dred Scott Court refers to the U.S. Supreme Court of 1857, which issued the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision. It ruled that enslaved Black people were not citizens and could not sue in federal court, a devastating catalyst that helped spark the American Civil War.
Wikipedia
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The Background
In 1846, an enslaved man named Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, sued for their freedom in Missouri courts. Their claim was based on the fact that their enslaver had taken them to live in free states (Illinois) and free territories (the Wisconsin Territory, where slavery was banned by the Missouri Compromise) before returning to Missouri.
National Archives (.gov)
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The Ruling
On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Courtled by Chief Justice Roger B. Taneydelivered a landmark 7-2 decision against Scott. The Court made three main rulings:
Britannica
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Denial of Citizenship: The Court held that people of African descent, whether enslaved or free, were not citizens of the United States and therefore lacked the legal standing to sue in federal court.
Property Rights: The Court determined that an enslaved person was property, and the government could not deprive any citizen of their property without "due process of law".
Invalidation of the Missouri Compromise: Because Congress could not constitutionally ban slavery in the territories, the 1820 Missouri Compromise was declared unconstitutional, effectively permitting slavery to spread across all federal territories.
National Archives (.gov)
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Historical Impact
The decision is widely considered the worst in the history of the Supreme Court and is frequently described as the Court's "greatest self-inflicted wound". By attempting to settle the issue of slavery in favor of the South, the Court instead outraged abolitionists, fractured the nation, and deepened the political crisis that led to the Civil War.
Wikipedia
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Democrats must take on the modern day Dred Scott Court.
— Ro Khanna (@rokhanna.bsky.social) 2026-05-21T18:11:13.263Z
South Carolina is eliminating the only Black majority seat.
Term limits on Justices now.
Expand the Court from 9 to 13 Justices.
Long past time to drive a stake through the stinking corpse of the Confederacy.
Snackshack
(2,597 posts)Is far worse than the Taney court ever was.
My 3 glaring examples of why.
1st- 2024 immunity ruling. Resulting in all we have seen since Jan 2025.
2nd- Shadow docket approval of ICE, which open the door to what we witnessed in Minneapolis.
3rd- Shadow docket approval of DOGE that we now know stole 500mil Americans SS data... and the abrupt shutdown of USAID which we are currently seeing ebola capitalize on in the DRC.
MadameButterfly
(4,165 posts)What does that solve? Usually Ro Khanna is smart. Don't even mention expanding the court right now or they might do it.
Yeah, a court with 7 Trump appointed justices. That would end any chance of democracy prevailing.
DemocracyForever
(185 posts)when they stopped the legal Florida vote count, left 160,000 votes located in the largest and most heavily democratic voting counties in Florida uncounted and appointed W who then appointed Roberts and Alito, 2 of the 6 current GOP extremists on the SCOTUS.. According to a post 2000 election analysis done by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, most of the uncounted Florida votes were cast by low income African American women. Low income African American women voted overwhelmingly for Al Gore.
It's long past time for Congress to enforce Article 3 Section 2 of the U.S. constitution which gives Congress the authority to regulate the SCOTUS. We need to go past court expansion and term limits and take away any and all cases having to do with elections from the now highly partisan, GOP controlled SCOTUS majority. They've now proven for 25 years that they're there to do the GOP's election stealing dirty work.
gulliver
(14,077 posts)Passages
(4,517 posts)
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