Case Citator › Dred Scott v. Sandford

Dred Scott v. Sandford

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Abrogated
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
60 U.S. (19 How.) 393
Decided
Confirmed treatments
2
Flagged citations read
37 of 37
Citing cases (total)
37
Treatment dates
1873–1972
Abrogated
A reviewed court treats this case as abrogated by later authority. Dred Scott v. Sandford's citizenship holding was overturned by the Fourteenth Amendment. All 37 flagged citations have been read; the two confirmed treatments are listed below.
More on how this was screened

The Supreme Court identified the amendment's effect in The Slaughter-House Cases. The Thirteenth Amendment also ended the slavery on which Dred Scott's territorial ruling depended. Later courts have continued to cite distinct procedural passages from Dred Scott.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

37 later cases cite Dred Scott v. Sandford; 37 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Dred Scott v. Sandford?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Abrogated

  • The Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment overturned Dred Scott's denial of United States citizenship to people of African descent born in the United States.

    The Slaughter-House Cases · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    It declares that persons may be citizens of the United States without regard to their citizenship of a particular State, and it overturns the Dred Scott decision by making all persons born within the United States and subject to its jurisdiction citizens of the United States.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

Criticized

  • The district court criticized Dred Scott's historical account of slavery while assessing Congress's power under the Thirteenth Amendment.

    Pennsylvania v. Local Union No. 542, International Union of Operating Engineers · E.D. Pa. · filed

    Regardless of its historical inaccuracy, Dred Scott announced a constitutional principle that a badge and incident of slavery was that black men (whether they were slaves or not) “. . . had no rights which the white man was bound to respect”.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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