The Handy Supreme Court Answer Book. David L Hudson
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cannot be, but that a law may be void in part and good in part; or, in other words, that it may be void, so far as it has a retrospective application to past contracts, and valid, as applied prospectively to future contracts.”
Justice Robert Trimble (majority): “As, in a state of nature, the natural obligation of a contract consists in the right and potential capacity of the individual to take, or enforce the delivery of the thing due to him by the contract, or its equivalent; so, in the social state, the obligation of a contract consists in the efficacy of the civil law, which attaches to the contract, and enforces its performance, or gives an equivalent in lieu of performance. From these principles it seems to result as a necessary corollary, that the obligation of a contract made within a sovereign State, must be precisely that allowed by the law of the State, and none other.”
Chief Justice John Marshall (dissenting): “If one law enters into all subsequent contracts, so does every other law which relates to the subject. A legislative act, then, declaring that all contracts should be subject to legislative control, and should be discharged as the legislature might prescribe, would become a component part of every contract, and be one of its conditions.”
How many and which justices served on the Taney Court?
Twenty justices served on the Taney Court, including Chief Justice Roger Taney and Justices Joseph Story, Smith Thompson, John McLean, Henry Baldwin, James M. Wayne, Philip Barbour, John Catron, John McKinley, Peter Daniel, Samuel Nelson, Levi Woodbury, Robert C. Grier, Benjamin Curtis, John Campbell, Nathan Clifford, Noah H. Swayne, Samuel F. Miller, David Davis, and Stephen Field.
What government positions did Chief Justice Taney hold before coming to the Court?
He served in the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate. Later, he held the positions of Maryland attorney general, U.S. attorney general, and U.S. secretary of the treasury.
In what position did the Senate reject Taney?
When Congress was in recess in September 1833, President Andrew Jackson appointed Taney as U.S. secretary of the Treasury. Nine months later, after disagreements over banking issues, the U.S. Senate rejected his appointment and Taney was out of office. Jackson then appointed Taney to replace Justice Gabriel Duvall but a Senate vote was postponed. It served to Taney’s advantage, however, because when Chief Justice John Marshall died, President Jackson then nominated Taney to fill the position of chief justice. The Senate confirmed Taney by a 29–15 vote.
What famous person was related to Taney?
Attorney Francis Scott Key, author of the “Star Spangled Banner,” was the brother of Taney’s wife, Anne Phoebe Carlton Key.
U.S. Supreme Court chief justice Roger Taney. Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
Which justice on the Taney Court gave a copy of his dissenting opinion to a newspaper before official publication?
Justice Benjamin Curtis provided a Boston newspaper with a copy of his dissenting opinion in the Dred Scott case before it was officially released. Curtis’s action greatly upset Chief Justice Taney.
Which member of the Taney Court was a Quaker?
Justice Noah Swayne, nominated by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, was born to Quaker parents in Virginia. He moved to the free state of Ohio in large part because he detested the practice of slavery. Swayne was the only Quaker to ever serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Which two former justices on the Taney Court returned to the Supreme Court several times to argue cases?
Benjamin Curtis and John Campbell both left the Court and established very successful law practices. On numerous occasions, they presented arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court. Curtis argued more than fifty cases before the U.S. Supreme after he resigned in 1857. Some of the more notable cases he argued included Paul v. Virginia (1869), Hepburn v. Griswold (1870), and The Potomac (1869). He also served as a key member of President Andrew Johnson’s defense team during his impeachment trial in the Senate in 1868.
Campbell resigned from the Court in 1861 after his home state of Alabama seceded from the Union. He rebounded personally to establish a very successful law practice in his own right. He argued a number of times before the U.S. Supreme Court, in such trials as the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873), Chaffraix v. Shiff (1875), and Ketchum v. Duncan (1877).
Which member of the Taney Court later joined the Confederate government?
The aforementioned Justice John Campbell joined the Confederate government as assistant secretary of war. He was in charge of enlisting men to fight in the war. After the war, Campbell was imprisoned for four months in Fort Pulaski, Georgia. President Andrew Johnson ordered his release, but Campbell was destitute upon his release. Campbell traveled to New Orleans and rebounded by establishing a very successful law practice. He once again became one of the country’s leading lawyers, arguing regularly before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Which justice on the Taney Court was disowned by his home state during the Civil War?
Justice James Wayne, nominated by President Andrew Jackson in 1835, refused to leave the bench when the South and his home state of Georgia seceded from the Union. The Georgia press and others harshly criticized Wayne for his refusal to resign from the Court, as Justice John Campbell, an Alabama native, had done. Wayne not only refused to resign, but actually ruled in favor of President Lincoln’s blockading of Confederate city ports in the Prize Cases.
Which member of the Taney Court was a former high school teacher?
Justice Robert Cooper Grier, nominated by President James K. Polk in 1846, taught Latin and Greek at his father’s school, Northumberland Academy, in his home state of Pennsylvania. When his father died, Grier succeeded him as the school’s headmaster before moving on to a career in law.
Several years before he became a U.S. Supreme Court justice, John A. Campbell served as assistant secretary of war for the Confederate government. Brady-Handy Photographic Collection/Library of
DECISIONS
In what infamous decision did the Supreme Court regard blacks as mere slaves?
The Taney Court issued the most criticized decision in U.S. Supreme Court history when it ruled in Scott v. Sandford (1857) that former slave Dred Scott was not free even when he was residing in free territory. Taney referred to African Americans as “that unfortunate race” who were “so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” Some historians have even cited the decision as one of the catalysts for the horrific Civil War.
Who was Dred Scott?
Dred Scott was a slave owned by Peter Blow in Alabama. Scott moved with Blow when he moved to Missouri, another state that authorized slavery. After Blow died, his executor sold Scott to Dr. John Emerson, a St. Louis–based army doctor. Emerson then moved his family—and Scott—to Illinois, which was a free state. Emerson eventually moved back to St. Louis and died. Scott and his wife Harriet filed a lawsuit in Missouri courts, arguing that they were freed when Emerson had moved to the free state of Illinois. Emerson’s widow and her brother, John Sanford (court records misspelled his name as