The Dred Scott Decision

Dred Scott v. Sanford, which Abraham Lincoln called "an astonisher in legal history"1 remains to this day the most famous of all American judicial decisions. It was a landmark in the history of judicial review because it was the Supreme Court's first invalidation of a major federal law. The decision, in fact, provided an early indication of the vast judicial power that could be generated if political issues were converted, by definition into constitutional questions. …

…Scott Case 340. 14 Stanley I. Kutler, ed., The Dred Scott Decision: Law or Politics? (Boston: Houghlin Mifflin Company, 1967) 10. 15Kutler, The Dred Scott Decision 10-11. 16 Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case 342-343. 17 DSvS, 404. 18 DSvS, 404-405. 19 DSvS, 409-410. 20 Kutler, The Dred Scott Decision 12. 21 Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case 346. 22 DSvS, 412. 23 DSvS, 426-427. 24 DSvS, 427. 25 Edward S. Corwin and Jack W. Peltason, Understanding the Constitution (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc., 1949) 100-101. 26 See Appendix C 27 DSvS, 451-452. 28 Kutler, The Dred Scott Decision 165.