Question

Who was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court when the Dred Scott decision was handed down?

Answer 1

Taney was the Chief Justice during this time

Answer 2

Answer:

The Correct Answer Is: Roger B. Taney

Explanation:

In 1835, after Democrats took control of the Senate, Jackson appointed Taney to succeed John Marshall on the Supreme Court as Chief Justice. Taney would preside over a jurisprudential shift toward states' rights, but the Taney Court did not reject federal authority to the degree that many of Taney's critics had feared. By the early 1850s, he was widely respected, and some elected officials looked to the Supreme Court to settle the national debate over slavery. Though he did not own slaves himself, Taney was outraged by Northern attacks on slavery, and he sought to use the Dred Scott decision to permanently remove slavery as a subject of national debate. His broad ruling deeply angered many Northerners and strengthened the anti-slavery Republican Party, and Republican Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election.