Chief Justice Roger B. Taney sided with Sanford in the Dred Scott vs. Sanford case. Taney made the court's reasoning known, stating that the court concluded that because Scott was a slave whose parents had been born in another country, he cannot be recognized as a citizen and therefore cannot legally receive any American liberties prescribed in the Constitution. Instead, Taney believed that Scott (a slave and a foreigner) should be recognized as a lesser person, or a peice of property. As a result, Scott can neither receive protection through the American Constitution nor receive the liberties of a common white man, culminating down to the fact that Scott has no right to fight for his rights in the judicial system. Conversely, Sanford has rights given to him from the Constitution to use Scott as property. This court decision contradicts the Missouri Compromise because Scott had lived in slave free Illinois, but he can still be recognized as property. Because of this decision Scott once again became a slave and the precedent Taney set pitted the north and the south against each other, leading to the Civil War.
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