[DiogenesLamp]

Taney did nevertheless pay a steep price for Dred Scott, one of the worst decisions ever by the Supreme Court, judicial activism comparable to the likes of Roe.

How was it Judicial Activism? My understanding is that it was a correct interpretation of the applicable constitutional law for that time period.

Voting the other way would have been Judicial Activism.

[jumpingcholla34]

Taney voted to uphold the law in Dred Scott, and all but one justice agreed with him. (There were two dissents, but one justice said Scott's claim should have been dismissed for lack of jurisdiction -- not that Scott was right.) It was an evil law, but until the 13th Amendment, a jurist who didn't want to legislate had no choice but to uphold it.

Also, has anyone read Taney's opinion in Dred Scott? It's quite a piece of reasoning. The yahoos who wanted his statute gone couldn't understand two words of it, I'm sure.

Taney freed his slaves and paid some of them pensions. He also voted against Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus. He stayed loyal to the Union when the War came. He died poor.

What more does anyone want from a man? We're being pushed around by morons who aren't fit to shine the shoes of the men they're maligning.

[colorado tanker]

Taney applied substantive due process to declare the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. There was no basis in the Constitution for his decision and he overturned decades of law. The rule that territories could make slavery illegal had been recognized since the Northwest Ordinance. That states could make slavery illegal was recognized at the time of the adoption of the Constitution.

Substantive due process is not recognized by the Constitution, in my opinion, only procedural due process is. SDP is the pernicious doctrine that is the foundation for judicial activism and the concept of a "living" Constitution.

Taney thought if he decided issues not before the Court to resolve the slavery issue once and for all that he would bring peace to the dispute between North and South. Just like the Court thought if it issued a solomonic decision on abortion in Roe that the controversy would be ended.