[Handy Dandy #191 to DiogenesLamp] The Supreme Court case that you should be talking about is The Dred Scot[t] Decision, (you know, when Taney solved the Slavery situation once and for all)? And three years later the Civil War broke out...... You do realize that the Dred Scot[t] Decision was the final version of Article IV, sec2, clause 3?
Do you realize that in Scott, the Supreme Court found that the Circuit Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case at the lower level and, therefore, remanded the case to the Circuit Court with a Mandate instructing the Circuit Court to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction? The Mandate:
Missouri, C.C.U.S.No. 7
Dred Scott, Ptff. in Er.
vs.
John F.A. SandfordFiled 30th December 1854.
Dismissed for want of jurisdiction.
March 6th, 1857. —
- - - - - - - - - -
No. 7
Ptff. in Er.
Dred Scott
vs.
John F.A. SandfordIn error to the Circuit Court of the United Stated for the District of Missouri.
This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Missouri and was argued by counsel. On consideration whereof, it is now here ordered and adjudged by this court that the judgment of the said Circuit Court in this cause be and the same is hereby reversed for the want of jurisdiction in that court and that this cause be and the same is hereby remanded to the said Circuit Court with directions to dismiss the case for the want of jurisdiction in that court. —
Ch. Jus. Taney
6th March 1857
There were nine seperate opinions issued in Scott. Nothing in Taney's Opinion was an official Opinion of the Court except those things argued before the court resulting in an opinion concurred in by at least four other justices. The vast majority of Taney's opinion was dicta, just his own opinion, not supported by four concurring justices.
U.S. Constitution, Article 2, Section 2, Clause 3:
No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.
I fail to see how reversal for lack of jurisdiction is the final version of a constitutional provision.
Jurisdiction had been claimed on the purported diversity of state citizenship between Sanford (NY) and Scott (MO, so claimed). The Supreme Court of Missouri had previously determined that Scott was not a citizen of Missouri. In interpreting Missouri law, the highest court of the State is the ultimate authority. The U.S. Supreme Court reviews State laws to determine whether they are repugnant to the federal constitution or not. It does not review interpretations of State law and then direct states on how to interpret their own laws.
Let me put it to you this way. Taney himself thought the decision would resolve the matter of Slavery once and for all. Right, he said that the case had no standing. The reason for that according to Taney, was that a black man had never been considered a citizen from the beginning, was not then and there a citizen, and could not ever be a citizen! And that was that. Do you see now how it is related to Article IV(not 2), section 2, clause 3? Are you trying to cover for Taney? That case is largely considered to be the worst decision in US history. Until Roe v Wade, IMHO. Remember too that Taney was Lincoln’s number one adversary. A side note: Taney, as Chief Justice of the “eminent tribunal” swore Abe into office, and then had to sit there and squirm as Lincoln ripped him a new one. Taney was one of the, named by Lincoln, slavery promoters mentioned in the House Divided speech, pre-election. I have maintained on these CW threads that the Dred Scott decision was the belligerent act that lead to the Civil War. Which makes the outcome of the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation and then the 13th Amendment the official slow death of Article IV, section2, clause3. I see a thread from the “fugitive slave cause”, to the Fugitive Slave Act, to the Compromise of 1850, to the Dred Scott decision and through the Civil War and Lincoln. Can you see it?