Part 1: Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) Majority Opinion (African American Citizenship)

*Note: The audio quality of the earliest episodes (like this one) is not the best. Sorry. Don't worry, the quality gets better in the episodes ahead as I learn the new skillset required.

Audio of the 1857 opinion of the Court in Dred Scott v. Sandford. For the next several episodes, I'll be reading an opinion from 1857 that has long since been overturned and relegated to the trash heap of bad Supreme Court decisions - Dred Scott v. Sandford. In the Dred Scott decision, the Taney Court held that African Americans, slave or free, were not citizens of the United States. I've decided to read this opinion over several episodes for two reasons: one is that it is incredibly lengthy and the other is that its contents shock the conscience. By this, I mean that its contents are so racist and offensive that both the listener and the reader are likely to need a little time to recover in-between each segment. I do want to warn those listening, especially those listening with African ancestry, that this opinion is incredibly insulting and no longer has any place in United States constitutional law save for its historical evidence of the stain of slavery.

I omit citations to provide a better listening experience. Find the full opinion here:

https://www.oyez.org/cases/1850-1900/60us393

 

Music by Epidemic Sound