Slaves are property, not persons: Dred Scott, Plaintiff In Error, v. John F. A. Sandford

On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney read the majority opinion of the Court, which stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. The opinion also stated that Congress had no authority to ban slavery from a federal territory. This decision moved the nation a step closer to the Civil War.

The decision of Scott v. Sandford, considered by many legal scholars to be the worst ever rendered by the Supreme Court, was overturned by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution, which abolished slavery and declared all persons born in the United States to be citizens of the United States.

The right of a woman to make autonomous decisions about her own body and reproductive functions is at the very core of her fundamental right of liberty under the Constitution. Women's rights of Roe vs Wade should have been embellished in a constitutional amendment.

'Sapere aude'