<P> Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857), also known simply as the Dred Scott case, was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on US labor law and constitutional law . It held that "a negro, whose ancestors were imported into (the U.S.), and sold as slaves", whether enslaved or free, could not be an American citizen and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court, and that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States . Dred Scott, an enslaved man of "the negro African race" who had been taken by his owners to free states and territories, attempted to sue for his freedom . In a 7--2 decision written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the court denied Scott's request . The decision was only the second time that the Supreme Court had ruled an Act of Congress to be unconstitutional . </P> <P> Although Taney hoped that his ruling would finally settle the slavery question, the decision immediately spurred vehement dissent from anti-slavery elements in the North . Many contemporary lawyers, and most modern legal scholars, consider the ruling regarding slavery in the territories to be dictum, not binding precedent . The decision proved to be an indirect catalyst for the American Civil War . It was functionally superseded by the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1868, which gave African Americans full citizenship . </P> <P> The Supreme Court's decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford is unanimously denounced by scholars . Bernard Schwartz says it "stands first in any list of the worst Supreme Court decisions--Chief Justice C.E. Hughes called it the Court's greatest self - inflicted wound". Junius P. Rodriguez says it is "universally condemned as the U.S. Supreme Court's worst decision". Historian David Thomas Konig says it was "unquestionably, our court's worst decision ever". </P> <Table> Events leading to the American Civil War <Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> Slavery </Li> <Li> Northwest Ordinance </Li> <Li> Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions </Li> <Li> Missouri Compromise </Li> <Li> Tariff of 1828 </Li> <Li> Nat Turner's slave rebellion </Li> <Li> Nullification Crisis </Li> <Li> The Amistad </Li> <Li> Prigg v. Pennsylvania </Li> <Li> Texas annexation </Li> <Li> Mexican--American War </Li> <Li> Wilmot Proviso </Li> <Li> Manifest destiny </Li> <Li> Underground Railroad </Li> <Li> Nashville Convention </Li> <Li> Compromise of 1850 </Li> <Li> Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 </Li> <Li> Uncle Tom's Cabin </Li> <Li> Kansas--Nebraska Act </Li> <Li> Ostend Manifesto </Li> <Li> Bleeding Kansas </Li> <Li> Caning of Charles Sumner </Li> <Li> Dred Scott v. Sandford </Li> <Li> The Impending Crisis of the South </Li> <Li> Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry </Li> <Li> 1860 presidential election </Li> <Li> Crittenden Compromise </Li> <Li> Secession of Southern States </Li> <Li> Star of the West </Li> <Li> Corwin Amendment </Li> <Li> Battle of Fort Sumter </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> </Table>

The missouri compromise was invalidated by the supreme court using its power of