Today in Supreme Court History: September 18, 1857

On September 18, 1857, the Supreme Court issued its infamous decision in *Dred Scott v. Sandford*, which declared that African Americans could not be citizens of the United States and nullified the Missouri Compromise. This ruling effectively protected slavery by allowing it to expand into new territories, significantly deepening divisions between free and slave states before the Civil War. The case centered on Dred Scott, a slave who sued for his freedom after living in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory, where slavery was illegal, but he lost the case with Justice Roger B. Taney delivering the majority opinion. This decision would later be overturned by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution following the Civil War.