Roger Taney

Roger Taney (1777-1864), American jurist and 5th chief justice of the United States, well known for his controversial decision in the Dred Scott case.

Roger Brooke Taney was born in Calvert County, Maryland, and educated at Dickinson College. In 1799 he was admitted to the Maryland bar, and in the same year he was elected to the Maryland legislature as a member of the Federalist Party. When the War of 1812 caused a division among the Federalists, Taney led the faction that supported the war. After 1824 he aligned himself with the Democratic Party. He served as attorney general of Maryland from 1827 to 1831, and President Andrew Jackson appointed him attorney general of the U.S. in July 1831. In 1832 Taney helped to write the speech given by Jackson to announce his veto of a congressional act renewing the charter of the Bank of the United States because it centralized too much power on a federal level. After Jackson's reelection in 1832, Taney was given a recess appointment as secretary of the treasury to implement the distribution of the funds of the Bank of the United States among various state banks. Because of congressional opposition to his financial policy, the Senate refused to confirm his appointment as secretary of the treasury in 1834 and as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1835. Taney was confirmed as chief justice in 1836, despite Whig Party opposition. Under Taney's leadership of the Court, federal judicial power over corporations was expanded, inland waters were placed under the control of the nation, and the federal government was held to exercise exclusive power over foreign relations.

In 1857 Taney delivered a landmark decision in the Dred Scott case that did much to polarize further the North and the South and to antagonize the abolitionists fighting for an end to slavery. Dred Scott was a slave who, when taken by his master to a territory that forbade slavery, tried to seek release from his bondage. The Court asserted that because the Constitution did not recognize blacks as citizens (whether slave or free), they could not bring suit in federal court. In addition, the Dred Scott ruling invalidated the Missouri Compromise of 1820, with the Court holding that slavery could not be prohibited by Congress in any of the U.S. territories. This was only the second time that a statute enacted by the U.S. Congress was overruled by the Supreme Court as being unconstitutional. See Supreme Court of the United States.