Hyman is either ignorant or dishonest. If Taney's case was "contrived" it would still fail to explain why four other federal judges (including one supreme) in four other federal courts all around the nation took cases on and reached the same conclusions as Taney in between 1861 and the indemnity bill of 1863.
That's what tends to happen in the absense of authoritative jurisdiction. The 9th "Circus" Court of Appeals seems to get it wrong most of the time, disagreeing with other circuits on similar issues, untils the Supremes slap them around or Congress passes definative legislation.