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Roger Taney (1777-1864)
Roger Taney (pronounced TAW-ney) was born to a wealthy, slave-owning family in Maryland, and graduated Dickinson College. He apprenticed with a judge and became an attorney in 1799. He was elected to two terms in the Maryland State Senate and appointed Attorney General in 1827.
Taney supported Andrew Jackson’s campaigns and joined his new Democratic Party. After Jackson asked his cabinet to resign in 1831, Taney became US Attorney General in 1831. Three years later, Jackson nominated him as Treasury Secretary so he could transfer funds out of the national bank. Whig opposition made him the first cabinet nominee to be rejected by the Senate. However, the Democrats won the 1834 elections, and in 1835 he was chosen to replace John Marshall as Chief Justice. In the 29 years he served as Chief Justice—still second only to Marshall–Taney was a strong supporter of states’ rights and limited presidential power. He actively opposed Abraham Lincoln’s actions in suspending habeas corpus and in recognizing a war against the Confederacy. He remained on the Court until his death in 1864.
Benjamin Curtis (1809-1874)
The son of a sea captain, Benjamin Curtis was the first Supreme Court Justice to graduate from law school (Harvard). He became a successful lawyer and joined the Whig Party. Elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1849, he helped modernize the state’s judicial procedures.
Curtis was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Millard Fillmore in 1851. His political views were opposed to the Court’s Democratic majority, and he was one of two justices to dissent in Scott v. Sanford. This led to internal discord, which greatly upset Curtis. He resigned several months later and returned to private practice.
He later served as chief defense counsel to the Senate Republicans in the trial of Andrew Johnson, who was so impressed that he nominated Curtis as Attorney General. Curtis refused. He ran unsuccessfully for senator in 1874 and died later that year.
Scott v. Sanford (1857)
Dred Scott was born into slavery on the plantation of Peter Blow in Virginia around 1795. In 1833, he was sold to John Emerson, a surgeon in the US army, who took him with him when he served in the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin. This journey entitled Scott to freedom under both state and territorial law, but he was unaware of this until after Emerson’s death. In 1846, Scott filed a lawsuit in Missouri state court seeking a declaration that he was a free man. When the case was first filed, he would have been freed under Missouri law because he had travelled to free territory. However, Scott lost his case because his attorney had relied on hearsay evidence to prove that he was a slave.
Scott appealed and won a new trial, but it did not take place until four years later. This time trial judge Alexander Hamilton awarded him freedom. However, his current owner appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court, which reversed