Dred Scott Decision

American  

[dred] / ˌdrɛd ˈskɒt dɪˈsɪʒ ən /

noun

1. ScottScott, Dred2

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Dred Scott decision Cultural  

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).

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Example Sentences

The amendment formally overturned the Dred Scott decision in which the court had said that free Black people were not citizens.

From Los Angeles Times

The Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision effectively removed all territorial restrictions on slavery.

From The Wall Street Journal

As Lincoln said in his speech on the Dred Scott decision, the men who drafted the declaration meant to establish “a standard maxim for free society” that would be “constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated.”

From The Wall Street Journal

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

The most sweeping of the Reconstruction Amendments, the 14th Amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision, which held that Black Americans weren’t entitled to citizenship at birth.

From Salon